The Portland daily press., 1898-04-15
Ii HUNG CHANGES FURS.
(London SPECTATOR

LII hung OnbuR ufto iAtihNAAD
houses in Pekin crammed with precious
furs from top to bottom, and no mlo'iie-
man pliers the choice skins on their way
to this repository. 1t has been done' ouo
Ii Hung Chang is q watchful ruler anu
it is rumored that the punishment lnhict-
ed was SO appropriate and divertlng eiiat
no one has even meddled with LIS trlpuC0
sables since. There is an immense de-
mand for rare furs in China. NATION
in which neither men nor women wear
jewels, but which has an exquisite taste
for personal luxuries, finds a substitute
for jewels III costume. An Indian or Al
CHAN prince will perhaps dress in white
cotton, provided this be set off by some
priceless gems on his sword, dagger and
turban. A Chinese mandarin's sole jew
els may be few bits of jade or carnelian,
but he makes up for this in summer by
wearing robes of fur SO splendid that it
needs certain education to appreciate
the full beauty of the costume.
1t has long been known that the Chi
nese furriers were the best in the world !;
and that except in the dyeing of seal
pecially in improving Its tint and lustre,
was unriyalled 1t was not, however, sus-
pected that they could improve on the
work of Nature. An inspection of some
of Lis furs recently sent to London
showed that this was task not beyond
tta crt Of ior,t niui Ii o atinr, n the
Far East. There were three or four robes
which raised pertain excitement of ad-
miration, even among the purely COM
mercial experts of the wholesale fur
trade. One of these robes was constructed
with special object. The aim of the
Chinese furrier had been to make skin
of sable magnitied to the size of the skin
of q bear In addition to creating gil
gantic sable, this genius also wished that
the animal should have fur with the hair
all living parallel; whereas in nearly eve
nv fur except that of the seal, when the
long hairs are removed the grain and di
recfion follow the anatomy of tho body,
and give an unevenness to the whole.
10 effect these objects the artist had
cut out the 'ttit-bits' of sable skins, and
divided these into strips averaging from
an inch TO half an inch in length. These
strips were all from the same part OF the
sable's body, and were covered with fur
of even -length, lustre and thickness.
They were then sewn together with
minute art, SO that at the back the skin
looked like PATCHWORK Of tiny paralleio-
grams like the squares on q trlt1llary
flower, averaging from three to four In
the square inch. In front the fur was
absolutely uniform, homogeneous, and
apparently without seam or joining-the
kind of giant cable skin which might APP
pear in dreams as the ideal of Russian
brides trousseau. But Ii Hung Chang s
furriers had produced something better
than this-a fur robe which can justly
claim to be an improvement on anything
that Nature has given us in the rarest
furs of beasts. Sable was again the ma
terial used In this robe also the skins
were divided, and rejoined SO as to secure
uniformity of tint, fur and setting. But
in the robe SO made the artist had In
serted at intervals the skin of the sables
shoulder and fore-paw. This, when out
out, laid fat, and sewn together, with a
little addition to the curven, forms an
:ocellus'' like peaoook's eye in sable
damask, for the tint of the robe was uni
form, and only the difference in this lie
and texture of the fur produces the orna-
ment. The result was the creation of a
| sable skin, adorned at regular intervals
with an apparently natural ornament OF
| peacoek's eyes, such as one sees in the
| tail of a white peacock, indicated by the
same alterations of reflection and lights
| as in damask. The magnificence of this
conception needs no comment.
| The other masterpieces OF this peculiar
art deserve mention. One is robe OF
skins of the red fox mot the English
| reynard, but the Canadian red fox), with
| fur various in tint, but comparable in
color to the different shades of red am Der.
In the golden parts we're set "eyes" OF
| the bright black foot of this fox, with the
smoother and darker red of the leg above
it, on tho same principle as the insertion
of "eyes' in the sable skin, but this time
with contrast OF color as well as OF
| tone. The second was robe of pieces
from the back of The "cross fox" So
| joined that they appeared to be taken
| from some much larger animal. These
were left the natural color, a cold gray
and yel'owish brown, but set in bed of
fur dyed chocolate color. In the third
the Chinaman had succeeded in creating
| what was apparently new ANIMAL The
robe, like all the others was in the shape
of cross of five cubes. Each of these
| squares appeared to be the skin of sin
gle animal, dark puce color on the other
edges, with irregular circles of minute
white dots in the centre, increasing from
an indistinct grayish brown on the out
| side to clear white in the inner circles.
This apparently natural ornament might
have deceived any one who did not know
the actual colors and limits of all natural
furs. On examining the back of this robe
it was seen to be made up OF minute
pieces sewn together in concentrio circles,
the pieces being no larger than those in
the tessellated pavement now SO common
ly seen on hall floors. It was. in fact, a
piece of fur mosaic. II China is opened
up to European trade new reservoir Of
precious furs will be tapped for New