FUR DYEING
INTRODUCTORY AND HISTORICAL
In discussing fur dyeing, the question naturally arises, “Why dye furs at
all? Are not furs most attractive in their natural colors, and therefore
more desirable than those which acquire their color through the artifices
of man?” The answer cannot be given simply. Natural furs of the more
valuable kinds are indeed above comparison with the majority of dyed furs.
Yet there are several reasons which fully justify and explain the need
for fur dyeing, for at the present time, this branch of the fur industry
is almost as important and indispensable as the dressing of furs.
The first application of dyeing to furs, had for its purpose the
improvement of skins which were poor or faulty in color; or rather, the
object was to hide such defects. As nearly as can be ascertained, this
practise was instituted at some time during or before the fourteenth
century, for fur dyeing seems to have been common during that period, as
is apparent from the verses of a well-known German satirist, Sebastian
Brant, who lived in the latter part of the fourteenth century:
“Man kann jetzt alles Pelzwerk färben,
Und tut es auf das schlechste gerben.”
However, at a later period, there was a general condemnation of the dyeing
of furs, and among the list of members of the furrier’s guilds, none can
be found who are described as dyers. There is a record of a decree issued
by a prince in a German city in the sixteenth century, prohibiting the
practise of fur dyeing. Inasmuch as furs were worn only by the nobility
and certain other privileged classes, and also were very costly, there
was great profit to be had by dyeing inferior skins so as to disguise the
poor color, and then selling such furs at the price of superior quality
skins. This was undoubtedly the reason for the prohibitory decree, but
there were some who continued to practise the forbidden art in secret,
using secluded and out-of-the-way places for their workshops, and mixing
their carefully-guarded recipes with as much mystery as the witches did
their magic potions. These circumstances probably account for the great
amount of mystery which has been, and still is to a considerable degree,
attached to fur dyeing, and also explains the opprobrium and distrust with
which fur dyers were formerly regarded.
Even at the present time, dyeing is often employed to improve furs which
are faulty in color. It frequently happens, that in a lot of skins there
are some which are considerably off shade, or in which the color is such
as to appreciably reduce their value below the average, the hair being
usually too light a shade, or of uneven coloring. By carefully dyeing
these skins of inferior color, they can be made to match very closely
the best colored skins of the particular lot of furs, and consequently
increase their value. With most of the cheaper kinds of furs, the trouble
and cost of improvement by dyeing would not be worth while today; but with
some of the more valuable furs, and especially such as are very highly
prized, like the Russian sable, or marten, or chinchilla, the darkening
of light skins by the skillful application of fast dyes to the extreme
tips of the hair, will increase their value sufficiently to warrant the
expense. This dyeing or “blending” as it is called in such cases, is done
in such a clever and artistic manner that only experts can distinguish
them from the natural. Dyeing used for such purposes is not objectionable,
provided the skins are sold as dyed or “blended.”
There are certain kinds of furs, such as the various lambs, Persian,
Astrachan, Caracul, etc., which are never used in their natural color,
because it is usually of a rusty brownish-black. These are furs possessing
valuable qualities otherwise, so they are dyed a pretty shade of black,
which brings out the beauty of the fur to the fullest extent. Sealskins
are also dyed always. Formerly they were dyed a deep, rich dark brown,
resembling the finest shades of the natural color, but now the seals are
dyed black with a brownish undertone, a color quite different from the
natural. While these two instances cannot be said to be cases of dyeing
to disguise faulty color, they are examples of improvement of color by
dyeing.
Closely associated with the use of dyes to increase the value of a fur
by improving its color, is the dyeing of skins of a certain lot of furs
to produce a uniform shade, thereby facilitating or to a considerable
degree eliminating the task of matching the skins by the furrier. This is
usually done only on skins which are quite small, of which a great many
are needed in the manufacture of fur garments, because the matching of
several hundred skins would entail too much time and labor commensurate
with the value of the fur. The most notable instance of the use of dyes to
produce a uniform shade on furs is the case of the moleskin. Occasionally,
furs are dyed after being made into garments, by careful application of
dyes, in order to obtain certain harmonious effects, such as uniformity
of stripe, or to produce a desired gradation of shade among the different
skins comprising the garment.
Not infrequently, the great variety of shades and color schemes which
Nature provides in the different furs, becomes insufficient to satisfy the
desire of the fur-wearing public for something new. The whims of fashion
always require some novel effect, even though it be for only one season.
To meet this demand for novelty, fantasy or mode shades are produced on
suitable furs,--colors which do not imitate those of any animal at all,
but which, nevertheless, strike the popular fancy. It often happens that
such a color becomes quite popular, and enjoys a considerable vogue, to
the great profit of those who introduced the particular color effect. The
best ones, however, meet with only a comparatively short-lived demand,
being soon superseded by different color novelties.
The basis, though, of the greatest proportion of fur dyeing at the present
time, is the imitation of the more valuable furs on cheaper or inferior
skins. With the gradual popularization of furs as wearing apparel since
the beginning of the last century, the demand for furs of all kinds
has increased enormously. The supply of furs, on the other hand, and
especially of the rarer kinds, has had difficulty in keeping pace with
the requirements, and as a result there is a shortage. A very effective
means of relieving this shortage, to a great degree, at any rate, is
the dyeing of imitations of the scarcer furs on cheaper skins. There
are many animals among the more common, and more easily obtainable ones,
whose skins are admirably suited as the basis of imitations of the more
costly furs. Some of the furs which are adapted for purposes of dyeing
imitations are marmot, red fox, rabbit, hare, muskrat, squirrel, opossum,
raccoon, and many others, and the imitations made are those of mink,
sable, marten, skunk, seal, chinchilla, etc., and indeed, there are very
few valuable furs, which have not been dyed in imitation on cheaper pelts.
On account of the general mystery which formerly surrounded fur dyeing
establishments, and which has persisted to this day, although to a lesser
degree, many peculiar notions were held, even by those in the fur trade,
concerning the production of imitations. The idea that in order to “make”
a certain fur out of a cheaper skin, it was necessary to use the blood
of the animal imitated, is typical of the conceptions of fur dyeing held
not so long ago. To-day, while the knowledge generally possessed about
this branch of the fur industry is meagre and vague, the air of mystery
and secrecy has become somewhat clarified, and such ideas as are current
about fur dyeing are more rational than formerly.
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.
How different is the case with furs! Far from being homogeneous, furs
present the greatest possible diversity of fibres to be dyed. As already
noted elsewhere, fur consists of two principal parts, the hair and the
leather, differing widely in their actions toward dyes. As a general
rule, the leather absorbs dyestuffs much more readily than the pelage,
and inasmuch as fur dyeing is intended mainly and primarily to apply to
the hair, there is usually an appreciable loss of dye material due to its
being absorbed by the leather, and thereby rendered unavailable for dyeing
the hair. This fact must be taken into account in the dyeing of furs, and
the methods must be adapted accordingly.
With reference to the hair itself, not only has each class of furs
hair of a different kind, but even in the same group there is always a
considerable divergence in the properties of the hair. The fur-hair, being
more or less of a woolly nature, takes up the dye with comparative ease,
while the top-hair is quite resistant to the action of all dye materials.
As pointed out in the discussion of the nature of fur, on different parts
of the same pelt the hair varies in its capacity for absorbing coloring
matters. The color of the hair, also frequently presents a great variety
throughout the skin, both in fur-hair and top-hair. Yet with all this lack
of uniformity and homogeneity, the dyed fur must be of an even color,
closely approaching the natural, gently graded and without any harsh or
unduly contrasted effects. The natural gloss of the hair, one of the most
valuable qualities of the fur, must be preserved. This is by no means
a simple matter, for the luster is affected by dyes and chemicals with
comparative ease, and especially careful treatment is necessary to prevent
any diminution of the gloss.
When the leather part of the fur is exposed to solutions of a temperature
exceeding 40°–50° centigrade, it soon shrivels up or shrinks, and on
drying the pelt, becomes hard and brittle, and therefore quite useless.
Methods of fur dyeing have to take into consideration this fact, and the
temperature of the dyebath must not be greater than 35°–40° centigrade. To
be sure, certain dressings make furs capable of withstanding much higher
temperatures, but their applicability is not universal, being suited only
for a very limited special class of dyestuffs. (V. Fur Dressing). The
necessity for employing comparatively low temperatures, coupled with the
great resistance of the hair to the absorption of dye, even at much higher
temperatures, makes fur-dyeing a very difficult operation indeed. Another
obstacle which must be surmounted, is the possibility of extraction by
the dye solution, of those materials, chemical or otherwise, which are
contained in the leather, and which are the basis of its permanence,
softness and flexibility. For in the majority of dressing processes, the
action of the ingredients is a preservative one, and when these are wholly
or partially removed from the leather during the dyeing, it becomes, on
drying, hard and horny, like the original undressed pelt. In cases where
furs are to be dyed, special dye-resisting dressings must be used, or the
dyed skins must receive an additional dressing before drying.
Dyeings on furs, to have any value, must possess great fastness to light,
rubbing and wear, and must not change color in time, either when the furs
are stored, or when made up into garments. The necessity for fur dyeings
to have these properties, together with the difficulties outlined above,
has greatly limited the field of available dyeing materials, as well as
the methods of application. These will now be taken up in detail.