Principles and Practice of Fur Dressing and Fur DyeingAustin, William E.
Science
Principles and Practice of Fur Dressing and Fur Dyeing
Austin, William E.
Fur -- Dressing and dyeing
The dyeing of imitations is quite an artistic kind of work, and indeed
fur dyeing ought to be classed among the finest of industrial arts. Some
of the reproductions achieved by dyers on a commercial scale are truly
admirable. The possibility of imitating the finer furs on cheaper skins
naturally led to abuse, the dyed furs being passed off frequently on the
unsuspecting and uninformed buyer as the genuine original. In fact, this
practise became so flagrant that in England laws were enacted to remedy
the evil. At the present time, dyed furs are all sold as such, although
there always may be some unscrupulous merchants who seek to profit by
deception. Some of the imitations and the names of the furs for which they
were sold, are as follows:
Muskrat, dyed and plucked sold as seal
Nutria, plucked and dyed sold as seal
Nutria, plucked and natural sold as beaver
Rabbit, sheared and dyed sold as seal or electric seal
Otter, plucked and dyed sold as seal
Marmot, dyed sold as mink or sable
Fitch, dyed sold as sable
Rabbit, dyed sold as sable
Rabbit, dyed and sheared sold as beaver
Muskrat, dyed sold as mink or sable
Hare, dyed sold as sable, fox, or lynx
Wallaby, dyed sold as skunk
White rabbit, natural sold as ermine
White rabbit, dyed sold as chinchilla
White hare, dyed or natural sold as foxes, etc.
Goat, dyed sold as bear, leopard, etc.
This list serves to indicate but a few of the great number of
possibilities which are available for the fur dyer to produce imitations
of the better classes of furs. Needless to say, these imitations cannot,
as a general rule, equal the originals, because while the color is one
of the most important features in judging the fur, the nature of the
hair, gloss, waviness, thickness, and also the durability are essential
considerations, and it is only in certain instances that skins used
for imitations approach the originals in these respects. However, for
the purposes and desires of the majority of people who wear furs, the
imitations are deemed quite satisfactory, and they also have the advantage
of being cheaper than the natural originals.
For whichever reason furs are dyed, there is no doubt that the art of fur
dyeing is one of the most difficult kinds of application of dye materials.
In the dyeing of the various textiles, either as skein or woven fabric,
the material is of a uniform nature, and therefore the dye is absorbed
evenly by the fibres. Moreover, textiles are dyed at, or near the boil,
the dyestuff being more uniformly and permanently taken up from solution
by the fibre at elevated temperatures.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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