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French Angora Monique on the left and English Angora Princess Ga Ga on the right.
Both are in their regrown coats. It is common for the French Angora to be shown in their regrown coats but not so much for the English Angora. Actually both breeds have similar first coat, soft and fine. English Angoras are treasured to have soft and fine wool but French Angoras are faulted for soft and fine wool. When the first coat of wool is cut down and the subsequent coats of wool come in, the English Angora would be faulted for having too many guard hairs while the French Angora would be considered as having a more correct texture.
Would you believe that the two breeds were the same breed? Here is a page of ARBA Standard of Perfection (SOP) from 1934-1939. This is believed to be the oldest SOP of the Angoras. As you can see, there wasn't English or French Angora, there was just "Angora Woolers". And as you can see, called the Angoras the "Woolers" was not an indication of not being of show quality at the time, it was the official name. Today, calling an Angora a "Wooler" means it's good for spinning but not for showing, how things change. One more observation that is worth noting, the 4 original colors listed in the SOP were White, Black, Blue and Fawn. Fawn was the original and still the correct term for the color, and the name "fawn" is used in all scientific textbooks as the correct term, there was no such name as Orange except referring to the Netherland Dwarf breed. |
Why are we looking at this old history? Why are two older French Angora and English Angora being shown in the photo? Over the 40 plus years that I am in the wonderful world of Angoras, I answered many questions about the texutre of Angoras. The English Angora texture seems to be very clear, breeders and judges are generally in agreement about what would be considered as ideal: fine, silky, soft, limited guard hairs, got crimps. I have encountered many questions from judges saying, "Exactly what is the correct French Angora texture?" The SOP, current or past, is not very clear. Breeders don't agree what texture is correct either. I even heard judges said to me, "Betty, tell your national club to revise the SOP language, it's just not clear".
My take of this matter is that the SOP language on English Angora texture is basically describing the first/virgin coat of wool; since there is only one first/virgin coat, it's hard to have inconsistencies. The SOP language on French Angora is describing the regrown wool. Why? All animals, whether these are the rabbits, goats, llamas, alpacas, sheep ... or even human, have softier wool/hair when young. The older the animals, the coarser the wool/hair. The French Angora SOP requires a bit coarser texture than the English Angora texture. The question becomes how much coarser? We know the SOP does not want coarse wool per se but wants more guard hairs. In my opinion, the degree of coarses-ness is determined by the age of the rabbit. Judges would see French Angora in different ages if the rabbit can come back with a complete coat for showing. I am lucky to have a French Angora doe that is now 6 years old who can come back with complete coat year after year, Monique is her name and she is in the photo above. I have unintentionally taken photos of her coats every year from 6 months old to over 6 years old. I will post these photos tomorrow to show the different stages of her wool texture. Which stage is the "correct" texture according to the SOP, that's subject to each person's interpretation. It is, however, an interesting exercise and observation of the French Angora texture.
