Guest Posted September 15, 2012 Share Posted September 15, 2012 Labeled White Chinchilla, lined in a very fine white velvet, very pretty - any idea on the indentification of this piece? Have you ever heard of white chinchilla fur? I do see there are white chinchillas, and their fur does look quite like this. http://www.capitalisticblonde.com/Graphix/white-chinchilla.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Worker 11811 Posted September 15, 2012 Share Posted September 15, 2012 Betcha' it's white rex rabbit. We have some Bears made of white rex rabbit and they look almost exactly like that. Rex rabbit looks a lot like chinchilla. In fact, many people call rex rabbit "chinchilla rabbit." It looks and feels very similar to a real chinchilla. Some rabbits are even bred to have coloring that looks just like real chinchilla. I don't have a problem with people calling it "chinchilla rabbit" or something similar but I do get pissed off when people try to pass bunny fur off as the real thing. Some people who don't know the difference will call it chinchilla, too. Sometimes, the people who don' t know the difference are the hardest to convince. My wife and I were in the fur salon at Macy's in New York City when this sales girl tried to tell me that a scarf made from rex rabbit was real chinchilla. They had a bolero jacket made from real chinchilla on display at the back of the shop. I took the scarf and the sales girl over to the jacket and compared the two, right in front of her. If you gently blow into the fur you'll make a little, circular crater in the hair. When you look into that little circle you can tell the difference in about a second. If it's real chinchilla, you'll see a little ring-shaped "bull's eye" pattern in the fur because chinchilla fur isn't the same color throughout the length of each strand. Chinchilla fur is actually variegated. Rabbit fur is not. When you blow into rabbit, you won't see that bull's eye pattern. It will be the same color throughout. So, I did that test right in front of her and said, "This scarf isn't chinchilla. It's rabbit." I gave her back the fur scarf. My wife and I left the store. We went to the Fur District and left her standing there with her ass in her hand. While my story doesn't prove that your scarf isn't chinchilla, I can tell you from experience, people often confuse rex rabbit and chinchilla. Sometimes on purpose. I suppose there could be such a thing as an albino chinchilla but the quality of the fur doesn't look like it came from a chinchilla. Rex rabbit is a very nice fur and I'm sure you'll really like it just as much. I just get pissed off when people try to pass things off as something that they are not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
White Fox Posted September 15, 2012 Share Posted September 15, 2012 There is indeed white chinchilla fur, and as I recall it is even far more fragile than regular chinchilla. To me the edges of the scarf don't look like chinchilla. Possibly rabbit or even something else totally. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 16, 2012 Share Posted September 16, 2012 It's possible it might be something else totally. I can't figure out what it is, definitely does not seem like rabbit, and I am too unacquainted with white chinchilla. The fur is a decent length, definitely not short. It's not dyed and very luxuriously lined (similar to my Dior white mink with high end white velvet), the fur is very iridescent on the tips. It is not the same colour throughout the length of each strand (to worker's query), it is in fact variegated, though it's mostly variations of the white colour. I also checked and the pelts are about 2 inches wide, if that helps with indentification. The pelts are beautifully stitched (maybe not relevant but I notice things like that). Could it be ermine? Another photo: http://www.capitalisticblonde.com/Graphix/MARILYNTRAVILLA1.png Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 16, 2012 Share Posted September 16, 2012 I am not quite sure what they mean by the term "grooved fur" in description of chinchilla.. do they mean it has a sort of wavy look to it when you blow into it, and you see the pieces of fur? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AKcoyote Posted September 16, 2012 Share Posted September 16, 2012 To me, the item looks like white rex rabbit. Rex both natural and dyed or bleached is frequently used for scarfs and similar accessories. Related to Worker's post, many store clerks are not sufficiently familiar with furs to easily distinguish between similar looking types. Also, they may not have had any training and have to rely on how the item is labeled. I worked part time in a fur store for 10 years, and I still had difficulty properly identifing similar furs, especially if it was a small piece. It takes many years working daily with fur to easily recognise some furs. It is amazing how often I clearly stated to a customer that an item was "rex chinchilla", only to have the customer lock on to the word chinchilla and ignore the fact that I stated it was rex. So in the interest of being honest, I frequently gave a short explanation on the the history of rex and why it is commonly used for a soft textured fur. Further, pelt width is not a reliable way to distinguish if the fur is from a small animal such as ermine or chinchilla. Manufacturing furriers frequently cut and sew a pelt to eliminate bald or other bad spots or to reshape the pelt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Worker 11811 Posted September 16, 2012 Share Posted September 16, 2012 This is what you'll see if you blow into chinchilla fur: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Chinchilla-fur.JPG This happens to be gray chinchilla. Depending on the color variations of the animal's fur, you'll see different patterns but this is still a good example of what you should see if it's real chinchilla. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 17, 2012 Share Posted September 17, 2012 When you blow into it, it does make the bullseye.. albeit the variation in colour of the bullseye is in variety of white colouring. Does this mean it is chinchilla? The fur is grooved, the pelts about 2 inches wide and very meticulously stitched. I tried to take a photo of the stitching but I had trouble getting it focused. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Worker 11811 Posted September 17, 2012 Share Posted September 17, 2012 I can't say, with 100% certainty, that it's not albino chinchilla just from looking at the picture. Virtually nobody can. Maybe somebody who has worked with fur every day of his life for 20 years could tell but people like that are few and far between. What I can tell you is that there are rabbits, specifically bred, which have fur that looks just like chinchilla unless you inspect it very closely. These rabbits are known by several names. Rex rabbit. Chinchilla rabbit. Rex chinchilla. There are other kinds of rabbits which also have similar fur known as Orylag and lapin. These aren't the same as rex rabbit and none of them are the same as chinchilla but in most cases, you have to look closely to be able to tell. Some manufacturers will dye rabbit fur to have the same color patterns as chinchilla. To make matters even worse, rabbit breeders have been able to breed rabbits that have fur that is the same color as chinchilla, right down to the black and gray stripes. All of these types of fur can have the word "chinchilla" attached to their names: "Chinchilla rabbit," "Rex chinchilla," "Orylag chinchilla,"Lapin chinchilla" and so on. They are not false advertising, per se, but the people who sell these furs know that customers will hear the word "chinchilla" and forget the rest. When somebody buys one of these "rex chinchillas" they latch on to the word "chinchilla" and will swear to their dying day that they have real chinchilla. Here's the thing... Rex rabbit is some REALLY NICE fur! A good quality rex feels just as nice as a chinchilla. Rex is also more durable than chinchilla, too. What's more, you could fill your whole bed with rex for the price of just one genuine chinchilla coat. Of course, I would love to have a genuine chinchilla but, unless I win the lottery, I'll be just as happy with a rex. We have several real fur Teddy Bears that are made of rex. My wife has some scarves made of rex and we have some fur toys that are also made of rex. Judging by the picture you linked us to, your fur looks very much like the rex fur we have here. By the way... the word "rex" comes from the Latin word which means "king" or "royal." So, when you say the words "rex rabbit" it means "royal rabbit" or "king rabbit." In my opinion, it really is "king of all rabbits!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 17, 2012 Share Posted September 17, 2012 (edited) Thank you for the information worker you are very knowledgeable about these things, and I am adding all of this into my brain database of fur info. Individually from that, I suppose I should have mentioned this is also a vintage scarf, and is definitely not dyed. From what I can find online cross-breeding was done in 1985 to create the rex rabbit. This piece DEFINITELY pre-dates the 80's so for sure it is not rex. How does that work into the calculation? By this I mean to say, what are the remaining possibilities? What I do know: The pelts are about 2 inches wide, and the seams are impeccable. It is very soft to the touch. It is not dyed, and when you blow into it, it makes a bullseye with variations of the white colour, the ends being frosty white. (Does another fur do this, since it is obviously not dyed or rex?) Edited September 17, 2012 by Guest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Worker 11811 Posted September 17, 2012 Share Posted September 17, 2012 If it is a vintage fur, it would be a good idea to take it to a furrier, anyway, so it can be checked over, cleaned and preserved if it needs to be. Regardless of what type it really is, it is fur and, as such, it deserves to be taken care of. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 17, 2012 Share Posted September 17, 2012 Definitely, I always have vintage furs cleaned and glossed. In the meantime, the furrier who does this is a distance from me, and I likely won't be going there for about a month. At this point tho, it seems I'll have to get them to do an appraisal too, out of pure curiosity about what type of fur it is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 17, 2012 Share Posted September 17, 2012 Does anyone know what is meant by "grooved fur" in relation to being a description of chinchilla? It is my endeavour to be armed with all applicable knowledge which I can attain about furs and their identification. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AKcoyote Posted September 17, 2012 Share Posted September 17, 2012 This topic locked at the request of the original poster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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