Zibellino

A zibellino, flea-fur or fur tippet is a women's fashion accessory popular in the later 15th and 16th centuries. A zibellino, from the Italian word for "sable", is the pelt of a sable or marten worn draped at the neck or hanging at the waist, or carried in the hand. The plural is "zibellini". Some zibellini were fitted with faces and paws of goldsmith's work with jeweled eyes and pearl earrings, while unadorned furs were also fashionable. [Payne, Blanche: "History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century", Harper & Row, 1965, p. 294, 321] Sherrill, Tawny: "Fleas, Furs, and Fashions: "Zibellini" as Luxury Accessories of the Renaissance", in Robin Netherton and Gale R. Owen-Crocker, editors, "Medieval Clothing and Textiles", Volume 2, p. 121-150] [Scarisbrick, Diana, "Tudor and Jacobean Jewellery", p. 99-100]

History

The earliest surviving mention of a marten pelt to be worn as neck ornament occurs in an inventory of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, dated 1467, but the fashion was widespread in Northern Italy by the 1490s.

The style spread slowly to the north and west. Mary Queen of Scots brought fur pieces on her return to Scotland from France in 1561; one of her zibellini had a head of jet. Elizabeth I of England received a "Sable Skynne the hed and fourre featte of gold fully furnyshed with Dyamondes and Rubyes" as a New Year's Gift from the Earl of Leicester in 1585.Arnold, Janet: "Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd", p. 327]

The traditional costume historian's term for this accessory, flea-fur, is from the German "Flohpelz", coined by Wendelin Boeheim in 1894, who was the first to suggest that the furs were intended to attract fleas away from the body of the wearer. There is no historical evidence to support this unlikely claim. Italians simply called these accessories "zibellini", their word for sables, and speakers of other languages called them "martens", "sables" or "ermines" in their native tongues..

The fashion for carrying zibellini died out in the first years of the 17th century, although fox-pelts were worn in similar fashion in the 19th and 20th century. [Hawes, Elizabeth, "Fashion is Spinach", New York, Random House, 1938]

Gallery

ee also

*Tippet

Notes

References

*Arnold, Janet, "Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd", W S Maney and Son Ltd, Leeds 1988. ISBN 0-901286-20-6
*Hawes, Elizabeth, "Fashion is Spinach", New York, Random House, 1938
*Netherton, Robin, and Gale R. Owen-Crocker, editors, "Medieval Clothing and Textiles", Volume 2, Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK, and Rochester, NY, the Boydell Press, 2006, ISBN 1843832038
* Payne, Blanche, "History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century", Harper & Row, 1965. No ISBN for this edition; ASIN B0006BMNFS
*Scarisbrick, Diana, "Tudor and Jacobean Jewellery", London, Tate Publishing, 1995, ISBN1854371584

External links

* [http://www.larsdatter.com/zibellini.htm Zibellini (aka "Flea Furs") in 16th Century Portraits]
* [http://www.thewalters.org/works_of_art/itemdetails.aspx?aid=15 Gold and jewelled marten's head from the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore]
* [http://www.geocities.com/curvess2000/muff_in_sixteenth_century_dress.htm The Muff in Sixteenth Century Dress, From Fleas to Fancy]