Fur identification - Jean Harlow in White Fur

[Guest]

Can anyone identify this white fur Jean Harlow is wearing? Fox, rabbit.. ??

It almost looks too short and whispy for fox?

http://pinterest.com/pin/109564203404289562/

[Guest]

Likewise this fur Fay Wray is wearing? Same idea as the JH one

http://pinterest.com/pin/109564203404288542/

[Mr Barguzin]

My initial reaction to both is white fox..... but as you say, they don't quite fit today's look of that fur. They are too long and fluffy to be ermine (the other white fur that springs to mind) and then I recalled that today's furs are more often than not bred on fur farms under ideal conditions and with a regular diet etc.

 

This also reminds me that those furs would in all likelihood have been wild furs, trapped in the wild, and subject to different conditions than the modern variants. A good furrier will try to match depth and colourisation when making garments, and since a stole requires fewer pelts, it is in all probability that these were summerish pelts....... although then you'd expect the pelts to be less dense, with the guard hairs more accentuated.

 

They could also be white mink, but the same qualifications would apply. Most ermine I've seen is flatter than mink.

 

So, I leave it to others to give a definitive answer, cause I's stumped.

[AKcoyote]

My guess would be blue fox, shadow fox, or arctic fox for both.

The first looks like shadow fox and the second like blue fox. However the B&W photography makes it difficult to be sure.

 

Neither is ermine as the hairs are too long. Ermine is of the weasel family and the hair length is similar to mink.

[Guest]

Always love your in-depth replies Mr. Barguzin. Thank you both for your input. I will tentatively put "fox" on it, unless we come to any further conclusions! I appreciate your help

[Mr Barguzin]

There is one thing that I tend to forget when it comes to old pics, or even pics in general, nd that is the use of Photoshop or whatever image enhancer is chosen/used.

 

What brought this to mind was seeing a pic at FFG that I knew was fox, but like a couple of images here had, in all likelihood, been Photoshopped to within an inch of its life, in particular the sharpening of the image. In that pic, the fur appeared not only sharp, but also matted as the fixer-upper tried to clarify the image. There are any number of fur pics on the net that I feel have been sharpened til the effect of the fur is too sharp.... a crystal fox image always comes to mind where it bedazzled you, but looked so fake.

 

So, there's another reason to sometimes go with gut reations, cause the person that has uploaded the image may have been trying out his new toy, mucking about with sharpness, contrast and brightness to the detriment of that intended by the original photographer.

 

*crawls back into burrow awaiting the Photoshop experts rebuttals and kicks*

[LordTheNightKnight]

White feathers is also a possibility.