And must have—if I die for’t—
A Muff, made of my skin, so full of blots
Of colour, and of lines, and dots,
And dappled stains, and chequered spots.
As to the Muff-dog—to finish the registration of the definition of Furetière—not only has Hollar left us an engraving of it, and presented it to us under the form of a small Spaniel, but Father du Cerceau makes his upholsterer poet say—Even the lady’s lapdog barked at me, that ingrate
Cadet, for whom I used to stuff
So many sweets inside my Muff.
The chief hall of the peltry merchants and furriers of the 17th century, in Paris, was in the Rue de la Tabletterie or Rue des Fourreurs, which led into the cross-way of the Place aux Chats. The shops of the retail peltry merchants were nearly all situated in the City, Rue Saint-Jacques de la Boucherie, and Rue de la Juiverie.
“In these places,” says Léger, “are to be found very beautiful Muffs for men and for women, and very fashionable ones . . . there are to be sold also very beautiful amices of miniver.” He adds a word about the Palatines properly got up, composed of skins of animals, foreign and native. The Livre commode des adresses de Paris contains some designations of peltry merchants and furriers towards the end of the seventeenth century.
