You don’t see fur adverts much these days (or at least I haven’t come across many) but basically fur advertising hasn’t changed much since this type of ad (above) from the 1960s. Why she’s holding a lit cigarette lighter that close to her flammable fur coat I have no idea…
Anyway, by now you probably know my feelings about vintage fur (conflicted), but I think it’s interesting to see how fur advertising changed over the 20th century. There were always adverts of beautifully dressed ladies looking glamorous in their fur coats (I particuarly love that 1930s one below), but there used to be a lot more realism about fur and where it came from.
There are a lot of elements in these ads which you wouldn’t see today: pictures of the animals the fur comes from, pictures of fur trappers, lots of photos of full pelts with the heads attached and even a special offer where you receive a free leopard pelt when you just order a brochure, astonishing! I guess attitudes were very different then, and people were a lot less sheltered from the reality of where fur came from. This shows in the popularity of wearing a whole fox draped around your neck which to me just isn’t very appealing.
Plus there’s the rather strange ad for a coat which makes you look like Santa. I wonder how popular that one was? I was also quite surprised to see the variety of different furs available, it wasn’t just exotic animals which were prized for their fur, people also had furs made from hamster, dogs and domestic cats. Yuk!
What do you think of these ads?

Lanpher Furs, North Star Brand. Lanpher, Skinner & Co., St. Paul, Minn. Season 1906-7

“Skinner” good name for a furriers I guess, 1906

1910 advert for C. A . Herpich & Sons, Germany

Full pelt fur collars from Kastner & Öhler, Graz, Austria. 1900/1901

Advert for “Fourrures André Brunswick” c.1930

Brochure for Buffalo skin children’s robes, 1908

The T Eaton Company, 1905/1906

A flappers fur coat from 1921

Look like Santa for Christmas 1903!

Advert for P. Rückmar & Co, Zurich – Furriers. I’m not sure on the date of this one but it was painted by ERNEST MONTAUT 1879-1909 so it’s way earlier than I would have guessed!

C.G. Gunther and Sons, 1910

Order a catalogue and get a free Chinese Leopard Skin! 1906

We trap and kill these cuddly animals so you can wear them. Lovely 🙂 1877

A decoration of the shop-front of Messrs F. Katzer`s on the occasion of the death of the Empress of Austria-Hungary (1898?)

German fur advert from 1910

A striking lady in a fur hat from 1910

Advertising postcard of a Furrier in Ried im Innkreis, from around 1900.

Albrecht’s Fur Facts & Fashion 1912-13, Saint Paul, Minnesota, 1912

Harvey Nichols fur from 1921
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