Out of curiosity, Robin, do you know if the "Baltic squirrel" was a distinct species, or a local variant of the European squirrel Sciurus vulgaris? British ones (now sadly rare) are bright red, and I've seen dark brown ones in Switzerland. I can imagine that Northern ones might develop a thicker and paler coat in winter. Kate Bunting Librarian and 17th century reenactor
>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 18/10/2005 18:58 >>> wrote: "Vair" wasn't just "squirrel," but the fur of the Baltic red squirrel, specifically certain ones imported from the coldest areas of northern and central Europe (mostly Scandinavia and Russia), and taken in winter (when the fur was thickest and also turned color -- grey back and white belly, without the red streaks from the rest of the year). Depending on how the fur was trimmed and assembled, it had different names, e.g. minever (white bellies with a fine line of the grey back remaining around each belt) or pured minever (white only), among others. It took a zillion of the little creatures to make one fur (meaning a large assembled piece) so that's a lot of trapping, preparing, and sewing. _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
