Why the most coveted miniature brushes are so hard to find

Stick around long enough in the world of miniature painting and you’ll soon learn the majesty, precision and exotic allure of brushes made from 100% pure Kolinsky sable hair. Of the animal also known as the Siberian weasel, or Mustela sibiricaKolinsky sable is known worldwide for its ability to hold a lot of paint in the bristles and shed that paint elegantly and smoothly during use, all while maintaining a fresh, sharp point. It’s an elegant brush from a more civilized era, perfect for detail work like freehand and marking edges, and boy is it hard to find those brushes in stores here in the States.

I always thought this was due to the popularity of brushes made from this unique type of hair. But it turns out the story is much more complicated than that. Earlier this month I started calling experts in the brush industry, and that’s when I heard about an international agreement known as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Florabetter known as CITES (commonly pronounced site-eez).

CITES is an international treaty signed in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1973 and came into effect in 1975. This has made it a fixture in the world of international trade for a long time. It is used to regulate and monitor the exchange of endangered species and materials derived from endangered species around the world. But the document is divided into three different sections, listing tens of thousands of species, and each of those sections serves a very different purpose.

Appendix I lists species that are threatened with extinction, period. This includes animals such as the black rhino (Diceros bicornis), which is classified as critically endangered. According to the International Rhino Foundation, this is the case just over 6,000 people live in the wild, and CITES is one of the mechanisms that helps protect them by strictly banning their international trade. Appendix II, on the other hand, includes species that are not necessarily threatened with extinction, but whose populations are nevertheless vulnerable. Trade in Appendix II species is not completely banned, but is strictly monitored and regulated.

Finally, Appendix III lists the species that are considered protected in at least one country for a number of reasons. By adding species to Appendix III, the signatories are asking for help from their international counterparts in monitoring or otherwise regulating their trade – but the species in Appendix III are not necessarily endangered.

“For all the right reasons,” says Howard Kaufman, founder of Princeton Artist Brush Company, “we don’t want elephant tusks harvested; animals (that will be) slaughtered for their skins; (or) for collectors to hang on the wall. (However) CITES, when it comes to Kolinsky hair, is incorrect.”

Kaufman believes that India, one of the CITES signatories, added the Kolinsky sable to CITES Appendix III to protect the native mongoose species, which the country considers a protected animal in that country. He believes that, at least at some point in the past, smugglers passed off Kolinsky sable hair as if it were mongoose hair, artificially increasing the international demand for mongoose. Therefore, in the eyes of the Indian government, the best way to protect the mongoose is to closely monitor the Kolinsky sable trade, and CITES is one of the mechanisms used to do so.

The point is: the Kolinsky saber is not threatened. In the wild it is quite numerous throughout Russia and China. But its inclusion in CITES makes the Kolinsky sable trade extremely difficult – not impossible, like the black rhino trade, but time-consuming and administratively prohibitive. That’s because importers and exporters are each responsible for the provenance of their Kolinsky sable hair, down to the individual gram, and for documenting the chain of control of the material as it moves around the world.

Kaufman has personal experience with what can go wrong when that documentation goes haywire.

“I once got a call (from customs) because the German government had not filled in one of the boxes on the CITES certificate,” Kaufman recalls. “When the shipment got here, U.S. Customs and Fish and Wildlife said, ‘The form was not filled out correctly.’ (…) The German government – ​​I swear on my life – sent an email to Fish and Wildlife in Washington, DC, apologizing for their clerical error (…) and the US government still would not release the shipment to me.”

Faced with the potential of an expensive, possibly years-long court battle over a pile of weasel hair, Kaufman left his shipment with officials, who most likely destroyed it rather than storing it. It is for this reason that Kolinsky sable brushes are so difficult to obtain here in the US. Yes, you can find them on Amazon from time to time, just like I do. You can also occasionally find them in art supply stores. Even Kaufman’s Princeton, now owned by Dixon Ticonderoga, still makes them occasionally. But the material’s commercial future is bleak, he said, mainly because of the level of administrative oversight required and the financial risks if something goes wrong.

Kaufman is not alone in this analysis of the situation from a commercial perspective, but other experts disagree. A study published in 2021For example, it has been concluded that current levels of European trade in Kolinsky sable hair may pose a risk to the species as a whole. “Given the large number of Siberian weasels killed and traded each year,” the authors wrote, “further analysis of this trade is urgently needed to clarify whether the trade is sustainable or not, and what impact it has on their population .” The authors even claim that trading in Mustela sibirica hair could be further restricted, resulting in the species being moved entirely to Appendix II in the future.

Fortunately, there are synthetic materials on the market right now, meaning manufactured hair made through industrial processes, and Kaufman says these materials are better than ever before.

“Synthetics have become really good quality,” Kaufman said. “It’s not impossible, but it’s a challenge to tell the difference (between them and Kolinsky sable hair). The synthetics are so similar to natural hair, (especially in) the way the hair is treated and what is done with it, that I have had people at trade shows and artists pick up our brushes and say to me (…), “This must be pure squirrel or pure sable.” And I’ll say, ‘No, it’s synthetic.’

It’s for these reasons, Kaufman said, that sales of Kolinsky sable brushes are declining so sharply here in the U.S. If the end user can’t tell the difference, why would they bother importing hair from an animal? may be at risk? Even worse is how one violation can lead to stricter surveillance at the border in the future.

“If the U.S. government catches you importing without a CITES certificate,” Kaufman repeated, “if you as a manufacturer – like Princeton or Dixon – bring something in and it doesn’t get through, you’re dead. You’ll end up on their you-know-what list.”

And especially given the heavy-handed methods of the new Trump administration, that’s probably a list no one wants to be on.

For myself, I’ll continue to use the Kolinsky sable brushes I already have, but only for extremely detailed work. For everyday paint slinging, synthetics seem to be the most reasonable choice.