There were at that time in Venice delicious Muffs made after the primitive fashion of a single band of velvet, brocade, or silk, lined with fine fur, rounded in a cylinder, of which the extremities were closed in different widths by buttons of orient crystal, pearls or gold.
D’Aubigné, in his Universal History, says in the course of a story of a besieged town:—“The inhabitants descended thirty paces from the breach, and among the foremost was noticed a woman with Muffs, a halberd in her hand, who mixed with and distinguished herself in this combat.” Under the designation of Muffs we must understand here spare half-sleeves like those mentioned in the Library of Vauprivas à propos of Louise Labé. Under Charles IX. the simple citizen folk were only allowed to wear black Muffs; ladies of the highest condition had alone a right to sumptuous Muffs of various colours.
In a satiric print of 1634, signed Jaspar Isac, and entitled The Squire à la Mode, we see carried by a woman, who is accompanied on foot by a Gascon cavalier, the first French Muff having a direct relation with that which is still in use at the present day. It is a sheath of stuff or silk bordered on both sides by a thick white fur, which grows into an enormous roll at the ends.
But it is amongst the precious engravings of Hollar, Abraham Bosse, Arnoult, Sandrart, Bonnard, and Trouvain that we see the authentic Muff really born, and find it in the hands of the Parisian matron, of the lady of quality in her winter dress, of the Précieuse, and the coquetting flirt. An engraving of Bonnard shows us a great lady with her head dressed à la Fontange, and in court dress, on the point of going out; a waiting-maid adjusts her mantle, and a gentleman attends the beauty’s good pleasure; the Muff she carries was then of a moderate size, with a bow in the middle. The Muff was worn for style, “for grace,” and was made of sable-marten for ladies of the Court, and simply of dogskin or catskin for the small citizens’ wives who could not devote more than fifteen to twenty francs to the acquisition of this light hand-warmer.
Antoine Furetière, in his Dictionary, has condensed in a few lines all the materials of a Dissertation on the Muff of the seventeenth century. At the word Muff we read:—
A fur worn in winter, in which to put the hands, to keep them warm. Muffs were formerly only for women: at the present day they are carried by men. The finest Muffs are made of marten, . . . . the common of miniver; . . . . the country Muffs of the cavaliers are made of otter and of tiger. A woman puts her nose in her Muff to hide herself. A little Muff-dog is a little dog which ladies can carry in their Muff.
Everything we see is summed up in this. Saint-Jean and Bonnard have preserved for us types of French gentlemen bearing the Muff under Louis XIV. One, in court dress, carries with much grace a small spotted Muff, which he holds in one hand, showing a glimpse at the unoccupied end of the cuff of a fur glove; another, in winter court-dress, holds with the languor of a petit-maître a pretty plump otter Muff falling to the hips, giving a gracious curve to the arm; in the middle of this Muff a vast bow of ribbons or Galants, something like the old trimming called petite oie, is displayed with an excellent effect. In 1680, nothing, according to the Mercure Galant, was to be seen but ribbons purfled with gold, laced, fringed, wreathed, purled, or embroidered, which were gathered in a bow in front, of the Muff.
La Fontaine alludes doubtless to the country Muff spoken of by Furetière when, in the fable of the Monkey and the Leopard, he makes the latter say:—
The king desires me at his Court,