HISTORY OF THE MUFF

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 22, 26 January 1924, Page 16

HISTORY OF THE MUFF

NOT ALWAYS WORN BY WqMEN.

The muff was originally used by men, not only for the purpose of warmth but also to lend dignity and adornment to the appearance. The first use of something like a muff-reaches back to prehistoric times,-when the fur of some animal caught in the chase was wound about the hands and arms, with the hair inside. In'the Middle Ages, says a correspondent of the "Manchester Guardian," the fur began to be worn outside, so the wearer was not only aiming at warmth, but also trying- to draw attention to the beauty and ; value of,the skin. This is shown in a fresco in Pisa, where in a summer scene, in which the costumes of mediaeval times are depicted,- a youth appears wearing a muff. This garment, if- if may be so called, wa3 henceforth used purely'- as an adornment, and towards the end of the seventh century became an essential portion of ceremonial dress at Court. It was until this time of small dimensions, though very elaborat in style, composed of different furs joined together in a Eattern and trimmed with embroidered ands. Towards the end of the seventeenth century, under Louis XVI. in France, it developed to an enormous size of' about a yard in diameter. About this_ time the muff first appear^ as an addition to the woman's wardrobe, also m France, and has never lost favour since. Throughout the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, even accompanying the thinnest of toilettes and as useful as a fan for purposes of feminine coquetry, "the muff appears in every variety of form and workmanship. In the later Victorian period it reached the last point in plainness, and expressed, as these acessories of dress do better than dress modes themselves, the conscious simplicity of the times. The present day muff, in size and in its'occasional melon-shaped form, approaches that of the Empire in 1796 *