Editing Sable (section)

==History of fur use and status==
[[File:Marie Antoinette and her Children by Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun.jpg|thumb|right|upright|
[[Marie Antoinette|''Marie Antoinette de Lorraine-Habsbourg'']] ''and Her Children'' by [[Élisabeth-Louise Vigée-Le Brun]] (1787){{pb}}Versailles, [[Palace of Versailles|Musée national du Château et des Trianons]]{{pb}}The Queen is shown wearing a dress and a ''[[pouf]]'' trimmed with sable.]]
[[File:Sable skins Bargusinski.jpg|thumb|Sable fur skins in [[Milan]]. The price corresponds with the upper coat's abundance of glossy blackness.<ref name="friend"/>]]

Sable fur has been a highly valued item in the [[fur trade]] since the early [[Middle Ages]], and is generally considered to have the most beautiful and richly tinted pelt among martens. Sable fur is unique because it retains its smoothness in every direction it is stroked. The fur of other animals feels rough stroked against the grain.<ref>Bigland, John (1844) ''A Natural History of Animals''. Grigg, Elliot & Co.</ref> A wealthy 17th-century Russian diplomat once described the sable as "A beast that the Ancient Greeks and Romans called the [[Golden Fleece]]."<ref name="siberia"/> Russian sables would typically be skinned over the mouth with no incision being made on the body. The feet would be retained, so as to keep as much fur as possible. [[Byzantium|Byzantine]] priests would wear sable for their rituals.<ref name=davey>Davey, Richard (2008) ''Furs and Fur Garments''. READ BOOKS. {{ISBN|1-4097-1942-1}}</ref>

In [[England]], sable fur was held in great esteem. [[Henry I of England|Henry I]] was presented with a wreath of black sable by the Bishop of Lincoln, for no less than £100, a considerable sum at the time.<ref name="friend"/> Sable fur was a favourite of [[Henry VIII of England|Henry VIII]], who once received five sets of sable fur worth £400 from [[Emperor Charles V]].<ref name="davey"/> Henry later decreed that sable fur was to be worn only by nobles exceeding the rank of [[viscount]].<ref>Homans, Isaac Smith (1859) ''A Cyclopedia of Commerce and Commercial Navigation''. Harper & Brothers</ref> The [[Russian conquest of Siberia]] was largely spurred by the availability of sables there.{{Citation needed|date=March 2013}} [[Ivan Grozny]] once demanded an annual tribute of 30,000 sable pelts from the newly conquered [[Kazan Tatars]], though they never sent more than a thousand, as Russia at the time was unable to enforce the tribute due to wars with Sweden and Poland.<ref name=siberia>Lincoln, W. Bruce (2008) ''The conquest of a continent: Siberia and the Russians''. Cornell University Press. {{ISBN|0-8014-8922-9}}</ref> The best skins were obtained in [[Irkutsk]] and [[Kamchatka]].

According to the ''[[Secret History of the Mongols]]'', when Genghis Khan married his first wife, [[Börte]] Ujin, his mother [[Hoelun]] received a coat of sable furs from the girl's parents. This was reportedly a very noble gift, serving not only an aesthetic need but also a practical one.<ref name="Dschingis Khan">Neumann-Hoditz, Reinhold (1985). ''Dschingis Khan''. Rowohlt Verlag GmbH, {{ISBN|978-3499503450}}</ref> Shortly after, when the young [[Shigi Qutuqu]] was found wandering a destroyed [[Tatars|Tatar]] camp, he was recognised to be of noble descent because of his sable-lined [[silk]] [[jerkin]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Ratchnevsky |first=Paul |chapter=Sigi Qutuqu (c. 1180–c. 1260)|date=1993 |title=In the Service of the Khan: Eminent Personalities of the Early Mongol-Yüan Period (1200-1300) |publisher=[[Harrassowitz Verlag]] |location=[[Wiesbaden]] |editor-last=de Rachewiltz |editor-first=Igor |editor-link=Igor de Rachewiltz |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kG45gi7E3hsC |page=75|isbn=9783447033398 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |translator-last=de Rachewiltz |translator-first=Igor |translator-link=Igor de Rachewiltz |date=2015 |title=The Secret History of the Mongols: A Mongolian Epic Chronicle of the Thirteenth Century |url=https://cedar.wwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=cedarbooks |accessdate=22 November 2022 |type=Shorter Version; edited by John C. Street |others=LOC § 135}}</ref>

According to Atkinson's ''Travels in Asiatic Russia'', [[Barguzin River|Barguzin]], on [[Lake Baikal]], was famed for its sables. The fur of this population is a deep jet black with white tipped hair. Eighty to ninety dollars were sometimes demanded by hunters for a single skin.<ref name="trapper"/> In 1916, the first [[nature reserve]] in the Russian Empire was created—known as the [[Barguzin Nature Reserve]]—precisely to preserve and increase the numbers of Barguzin sable. Sable fur would continue to be the most favoured fur in Russia, until the discovery of [[sea otter]]s in the [[Kamchatka]] peninsula, whose fur was considered even more valuable.<ref name="siberia"/> Sable furs were coveted by the nobility of the [[Russian Empire]], with very few skins ever being found outside the country during that period. Some, however, would be privately obtained by [[Jewish people|Jewish]] traders and brought annually to the [[Leipzig]] fair.<ref name="trapper"/> Sometimes, sable hunting was a job given to convicts exiled to Siberia.<ref name="zoo"/>

Imperial Russian fur companies produced 25,000 skins annually, with nearly ninety percent of the produce being exported to [[France]] and [[Germany]]. The civic robes of the Lord Mayor and Corporation of [[London]], which were worn on State occasions, were trimmed with sable.<ref name=friend>''The Friend: A Religious and Literary Journal'', Volume 32, 1859</ref> As with minks and martens, sables were commonly caught in steel traps.<ref name="trapper"/> Intensified hunting in Russia in the 19th and early 20th century caused a severe-enough decline in numbers that a five-year ban on hunting was instituted in 1935, followed by a winter-limited licensed hunt. These restrictions together with the development of sable farms have allowed the species to recolonize much of its former range and attain healthy numbers.<ref name=grizimek>(1990) Grizimek's Encyclopedia of Mammals Volume 3. New York: McGraw-Hill.</ref>

The [[Soviet Union]] allowed [[Old Believer]] communities to continue their traditional way of life on the condition that they hand over all sable skins they produced.<ref>Richards, Susan (2009) ''Lost and Found in Russia: Encounters in a Deep Heartland''. I. B. Tauris & Co.  {{ISBN|1-84885-023-9}}</ref> The [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]] led to an increase of hunting and [[poaching]] in the 1990s, in part because wild caught Russian furs are considered the most luxurious and demand the highest prices on the international market.<ref>{{cite news |last=Tyler |first=Patrick E. |title=Behind the $100,000 Sable Coat, a Siberian Hunter |work=The New York Times |date=2000-12-27 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/27/world/behind-the-100000-sable-coat-a-siberian-hunter.html |page=A8}}</ref> Currently, the species has no special conservation status according to the [[IUCN Red List]], though the isolated Japanese subspecies ''M.&nbsp;zibellina brachyurus'' is listed as "data-deficient".<ref name=iucn/>

Sable fur remains highly valued and is integrated into various clothing fashion items. It is used to decorate collars, sleeves, hems and hats (see, for example the [[shtreimel]]). The so-called [[kolinsky sable-hair brush]]es used for watercolour or oil painting are not manufactured from sable hair, but from that of the [[Siberian weasel]].
{{clear}}