WOW, Monica! That's fascinating! Thank you very much. Michelle
On 11/03/2010 09:01 PM, monica spence wrote:
Hi Michelle, Here's my best guess: martens. During the 20th C. ladies wore a nice suit with a set of martens around their shoulders. They were clipped nose to butt around the body. Martens have a long and distinguished history in fashion history. During the Renaissance, people didn't know how they mated and thought they did it without sex (and possibly through their ear) and so they became a symbol of the Virgin birth. The Renaissance-era furriers did whatever they had to do to preserver the skin, replaced the head and little feet with gold/ enameled/jeweled replacement parts and were worn over the arm of a woman. The portrait of Countess Livia da Porto in the Walters Gallery in Baltimore shows one. Because of the fertility reference historians have speculated she might have been pregnant when the painting was done-- plus she had two children already, the daughter Porzia is pictured with her mom. Her husband and son are in another painting. Monica
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