CORONATION ERMINE.

New Zealand Mail, 29 January 1902, Page 16

CORONATION ERMINE.

There will be much devastation among the white ermine that swarm on the plains of Canada and Russia before the Coronation next June brings a joyous time to England.

It is the skins of these little crealures that will trim the robes of peers and peeresses at the Coronation' ceremony, and so great has the demand for them become that- prices have already risen 50 per cent., and there is likely to bo another 50 per cent, increase before Coronation day. The increase in price, the representative of one of the largest London firms of wholesale furriers explained lately, was not because the increased demand would result in any shortage of skins, but because the merchants, knowing that the importers must have them, would put up the prices. Many firms, foreseeing an increased demand, speculated to some extent in the furs, and purchased largely three or four months ago, when the price was about £3 10s a "timber.” or case of forty skins. The price has already gone up to £7 a "timber,” and will probably rise to £9 to £lO. Many importers arc instructing their agents to purchase quantities of skins at the coming great fur fair at Nijni, in Russia, where millions are sold every year. Several peers and peeresses have taken tho precaution to purchase while the skins are comparatively cheap, and some, indeed, have asked for estimates of “ermino” robes to be made of white rabbit, tho skin of which, though rather thicker, can scarcely be distinguished from that of the more costly white stoat. Tho use of rabbit skin, however, it should bo pointed out, is contrary to tho regulations. Tho average number of ermine skins required for a peer’s robes is ninety, so that at a modest computation 108,000 ermino, at tho cost of about' £21,000 splendour to the scone of June 2b, 1902.