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Article: Plumes: Ostrich Feathers, Jews and a Lost World of Global Commerce.(Book review)
- Article from:
- History Today
- Article date:
- August 1, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2009 History Today Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Plumes
Ostrich Feathers, Jews and a Lost World of Global Commerce
Sarah Abrevaya Stein
Yale University Press 244pp 18 [pounds sterling]
ISBN 9780300127362
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
After my grandmother died at the age of 89, my mother and I found an old cardboard box (Marshall and Snelgrove circa 1910), which contained a mass of feathers. There were whole wings, presumably from birds shot by my grandfather. There were also masses of ostrich feathers. There was something creepy about these relics. That they were not yet properly transformed into ornaments exposed in miniature the rapacity and cruelty of treating the ...