item details
NameCoat, seal fur
ProductionUnknown; tailor; circa 1915; New Zealand
Classificationcoats
Materialsfur
Materials SummarySeal fur
DimensionsCentre back: 1250mm (length)
Registration NumberGH016681
Credit lineGift of the Urwin Family, 2010
Overview
This seal fur coat was made for Adelaide Urwin. It was a gift from her husband, William James Urwin who had the coat made from seal fur that he acquired locally, from sealers in Bluff, New Zealand in about 1914-15. The Urwin family were Fish and Oyster merchants in Bluff, a business started by Thomas Urwin in the 1890s, and continues with the Urwin family today.
At the time the fur was acquired the sealing industry was almost obsolete. It had only survived as an off-season hobby for shore-based whalers. As seal numbers dwindled, hunting was confined to the winter by a law in 1875. But after 1894, with the exception of 1914 and 1915, there was no open season.