At 14:01 03/03/2009, you wrote:
I had a thought about this -- brain working overnight, you know --
and wanted to add to the list of possibilities. Domestic rabbits
are the source of all nearly tanned pelts in the US. Showshoe hares
are very different from domestic rabbits - they are larger and they
turn white in winter like the ermine. This may be a more
historically accurate source of white fur for anyone but the highest
nobility. If a garment was lined completely with white fur similar
to that portrait, it would make more sense to use the large skins of
a hare. I'd suspect that ermine has a much shorter length of hair
than shown in that portrait. Even shorter than mink - but someone
who has compared both would know better. The only ermine I've ever
seen was road kill.
Surely the best thing would be to check what fur was available at the
time of the portrait? And what was worn by people of the status of
the Arnolfinis. Sumptuary laws may be relevant here - I don't know if
they had them in Holland.
* Veale, Elspeth M.: The English Fur Trade in the Later Middle
Ages, 2nd Edition, London Folio Society 2005.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//wiki/Special:BookSources/0900952385>ISBN
0900952385
This might help - not read it myself yet, or "Fur in Dress" by Elizabeth Ewing.
Suzi
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