Astrakhan, Persian Lamb, Swakara: Four Words, One Sheep

Astrakhan, Persian lamb, Swakara and karakul are not four furs. They are four words for one animal — the Karakul sheep — and the differences between them are age, origin and trade custom rather than species. Knowing which word means what is most of what you need to read an old label honestly.

One sheep, several names

The Karakul is a broad-tailed sheep from Central Asia, named after a village called Karakul. It has been bred for its pelt for a very long time, and as the trade spread the same pelt acquired different names in different markets.

Persian lamb

The Western trade name, and for most of the twentieth century the usual one. It describes the pelt of recently born lambs, with the tight, flat, glossy curl that most people picture when they think of the material.

Astrakhan

A place name that became a trade name. Astrakhan is a Russian region near the Volga, and the word attached itself to the fur that passed through it. The New York Times noted in 2005 that astrakhan was a recently popularised name for a fur previously known as Persian lamb or karakul — so if you are comparing a 1960s label to a modern listing, the same material may be described by different words purely because fashion changed which one sounded better.

Swakara

South West Africa Karakul — Namibian. Karakul sheep were established in southern Africa and the pelts became a distinct, modern quality designation rather than an older regional name. On a vintage garment, Swakara usually indicates later production than an unqualified "Persian lamb".

Broadtail

This is the one that requires plain speaking. Broadtail refers to pelts from unborn or premature lambs, and it is described in the fur trade as the most valuable grade of the material. Its surface has no curl — a flat, wavy, moiré-like figure instead — because the curl has not yet formed.

Why we are telling you that

Because it is the second thing people want to know about this fur after "what is it", and because a reader who finds it out somewhere else afterwards is entitled to wonder why we did not say so.

Nothing in this archive is broadtail. The pieces here are Persian lamb, astrakhan and Swakara — pelts from lambs that were born. We are not in a position to audit a pelt taken sixty years ago, and we will not pretend otherwise, but the distinction is real and it is the one that matters most to people weighing this material.

The wider question of whether to wear vintage fur at all is a genuine disagreement with decent arguments on both sides, and we have set them out — including our own obvious commercial interest — in whether a vintage fur coat is worth buying. This piece is about what the words mean, not about settling that.

Words that are treatments, not breeds

Three terms turn up alongside these and describe processes rather than animals, which is a common source of confusion in listings.

Processed broadtail is Karakul pelt sheared close enough to the skin that the curl is removed, producing a flat surface resembling natural broadtail. It is more durable than the natural version and less expensive. The word "broadtail" in a listing therefore does not by itself tell you which of the two you are looking at.

Mouton and shearling are likewise treatments of lamb or sheepskin, not Karakul designations. A shearling coat and an astrakhan coat are different materials entirely, however similar the words look on a rail.

The American chapter

Karakul sheep were introduced to the United States in the 1910s and 1920s specifically for pelt production. American breeders subsequently crossed other breeds into the Karakul bloodline, and the Vintage Fashion Guild records the result plainly: inferior pelt quality.

That is useful when you are looking at mid-century American pieces. It does not mean an American-made coat is poor — it means origin is one of the things that separated grades at the time, and the label may not tell you which you have.

Reading the words on a vintage label

Four practical conclusions follow.

The four main words are not a quality ladder. Persian lamb, astrakhan and karakul are largely interchangeable descriptions of the same thing. Swakara is a regional designation. None of them is automatically finer than another.

The word chosen tells you about the seller's era as much as the pelt. A coat sold as "Persian lamb" in 1965 and one sold as "astrakhan" in 2020 may be indistinguishable materials.

Curl or no curl is the real visual division. Tight flat curls mean Persian lamb or astrakhan in the ordinary sense. A flat, watered-silk figure with no curl means broadtail of one kind or another — and the listing should say which.

Condition lives in the skin, not the curl. As with any fur, the pelt is a leather garment with hair attached, and it is the hide that ages. That question is answered in the fur buying guide rather than here.

Where to look next

For the material's place in the wider trade, read The Fur Story. If you are trying to establish whether something is fur at all, how to tell real fur from faux covers the checks you can do by hand. The pieces themselves are in astrakhan and Persian lamb, and the wider fur archive.