In the coldest parts of Northern and Central Europe, especially the Baltic region, the winter coat of this squirrel is blue-grey on the back and white on the belly, and was much used for the lining of cloaks called mantles.

Jun 23, 2011 · “Hazel has now finished my 12th C tunic and cloak. The cloak is lined with vair – which is the belly fur of squirrels. Manuscripts show several cloaks so lined.The tunic is full length is heavily. embroidered at the neck and has wide lined sleeves.” The skins were gotten from the House of de Clifford, professional furriers.

Vair This bell-shaped pattern represents the fur of an animal like a weasel called a ver or a vair, from the Latin word varus, that had to be imported from Russia and was often used for lining the cloaks of rich nobles. Vair was a symbol of great wealth.

Vair is one of the principal furs in heraldry, consisting of a series of panes, alternately white and blue, completely tiling the field. It was originally meant to represent squirrel-skins, sewn together with the back-fur and belly-fur alternating.

Jun 25, 2024 · In heraldry, the use of furs dates back to the beginning of the art. Initially, there were only two furs used – ermine and vair. Ermine represents the fur of the stoat, a type of weasel, in its white winter coat, when it is called an ermine.

VAIR is an arrangement of bell-like shapes, derived from the sewing of squirrel skins onto a shield. Because of the colour of squirrel fur, this is always represented as a blue and white pattern.

An heraldic fur, Vair, (fr. vairé), generally written vairy when definite tinctures are named: a party-coloured fur, properly argent and azure, which tinctures are always implied when no others are mentioned; but, as will be seen, it occurs even in the early rolls of different tinctures.

May 14, 2021 · Vair was a prized medieval fur, (second only to ermine), made from the winter fur of the northern red squirrel, native to Russia and the Baltics. In the winter, its fur changed from red to a variety of different values of dark grey with a bluish tinge, and white bellies.

The responses have been varied on how to achieve the look of vair from a labor intensive two-tone fur sewing project to a felting method. While I have gotten a number of ideas I had to share this particular image to the right.

Vair is the heraldic representation of patches of squirrel fur in an alternating pattern of blue and white.* So the lining and collars of the cloaks that are represented are …