Ask the Past: fur coat

I've inherited my grandmother's fur coat, and it's looking a bit grubby. What's the best way to clean fur?

Well, the best way to clean a fur coat probably depends on what you've got on it. None of the sources I checked mentioned anything about getting red paint out of fur, so I hope that's not the issue. But assuming that it's just general dirt, here are some cleaning suggestions. Firstly, from Mrs Beeton's Household Management (1907):

To Clean Furs: Moisten some bran with hot water, rub the fur with it, and dry with a flannel. Then rub with a piece of muslin and some dry bran.

Aunt Daisy's Book of Handy Hints (1955) offered very much the same advice, but with a little added beating with a stick:

Heat bran until the hand can only just bear it; then rub it well into soiled and greasy fur. Afterwards beat the fur with a light stick to remove it.

In fact, almost all of the books I checked recommend bran for cleaning a fur coat, but if you have a light coloured fur coat, this advice from the 27 May 1922 edition of the New Zealand Herald might be more suitable;

A light fur should be cleaned by placing it on a table, preferably out of doors, and sprinkling it well with calcined magnesia. This should be gently rubbed into the fur with a soft handkerchief or piece of white flannel. When clean, the fur should be shaken and rubbed with a dry, soft cloth, and then put away, if no longer required for immediate use, in tissue paper. Some women clean their light furs by sprinkling them with magnesia, putting them in a bag (a pillow-case answers the purpose for a stole or muff), and shaking them about well; but the rubbing, though more tedious, is the better plan. Ermine, white fox, squirrel, or any light fur can be cleaned in the way suggested. When the magnesia becomes soiled, a fresh supply must be used, and the fur should be beaten on the wrong side to dislodge the powder thoroughly if it appears to adhere. Warm flour is also successfully used for cleaning white furs, and bran warmed in the oven is excellent for darker fur.

This advice from the 9 August 1927 edition of the Opunake Times may also helpful for keeping a light coloured fur coat clean:

Light furs, which get discoloured and greasy by contact with the neck, can be cleaned with benzine in the ordinary way, the only thing to note that the piece of flannel applying the spirit must be gently rubbed always the right way of the fur.

If you do decide to wash your clothes with benzene, do remember that it's incredibly poisonous - according to a 1948 report from the American Petroleum Institute, "it is generally considered that the only absolutely safe concentration for benzene is zero".

And finally, once you've got the coat clean, here's are a few pieces of maintenance advice from Mrs Beeton's Household Management:

Furs, feathers and woollens require the constant care of the waiting-maid. Furs and feathers not in constant use should be wrapped up in linen washed in lye.

I'm sure that will help.