From the turn of the century to the early 1930s silver fox fur was fashionable as coats, muffs, and collars. The Canadian province of Prince Edward Island was a centre of fox breeding and many Islanders made fortunes in the fur business.

As T. K. Pratt, editor of the superb Dictionary of Prince Edward Island English (Univeristy of Toronto Press, 1988) makes plain, this good fortune contributed some new terms to the language of the island. ‘To fox a horse’ was to have an old nag slaughtered and its meat chopped up for fox food. Prices for a good pair of breeding silver foxes were remarkable. In 1913 one pair brought $ 30,000 CDN. Some fox farmers became millionaires and built ornate mansions at various locales on Prince Edward Island. Often these stately homes are all that remain of the fox-breeding industry, lonely Edwardian sentinels dotting the countryside as reminders of how fleeting even a cool million may be. ‘A fox house’ is still a descriptive for these large homes built by ‘fox money.’

I can’t help but add a line that is merely peripheral to this topic. It is Oscar Wilde’s definition of an English fox hunt: “The unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable.” Yoicks! Tally-Ho! Wilde’s disdain for the inbred, galumphing nincompoops who comprised the steatopygous squirearchy of England is delicious. I like to think Wilde conceived this snub of the hunt set with a smirk that was vulpine (vulpa Latin ‘fox’).

The silver fox is still a popular iconic animal in advertisements and brand names, as shown above and below, on a wine label, an American movie poster and a Russian postage stamp.

 © 2006 William Gordon Casselman

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