Miniver

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The Arnolfini Portrait by Jan van Eyck (1434); the woman wears a dress trimmed with miniver Van Eyck - Arnolfini Portrait.jpg
The Arnolfini Portrait by Jan van Eyck (1434); the woman wears a dress trimmed with miniver

Miniver, an unspotted white fur edged with grey, derives originally from the winter coat of the red squirrel. In the Kingdom of England the term became established as a general term for white or almost white fur. [1]

In the original sense, miniver differs from ermine (stoat) fur in that it does not include the distinctive black tails of the stoat but is formed of distinctive grey edged panels cut from the complete fur and framing the white belly. From a red squirrel, which has a greyish-white winter coat with a white underside, miniver gros is the whole fur including the grey, and miniver pure retains only the white part. The heraldic fur vair translates the grey into blue and alternates back and belly. [2] [1] [3] [ need quotation to verify ]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "University of Manchester, Lexis of Cloth & Clothing Project, Search Result For: 'miniver'". lexissearch.arts.manchester.ac.uk.
  2. Cumming, Valerie; Cunnington, C. W.; Cunnington, P. E. (1 September 2010). The Dictionary of Fashion History. Berg. ISBN   9781847887382 via Google Books.
  3. R. Delort, Le commerce des fourrures en occident à la fin du moyen-âge, Rome, 1978.