French 30's-50's Leather Jacket with action-back and Mouton

Just in time for colder temperatures I received today this jacket from France.
Warm quilted liner and generous cut (no shoulder pads) - perfect for slipping it over a suit.
A sort of "storm cuff" in the sleeve lining, which closes above the wrist thanks to an elastic string.
The mouton collar (mercifully odor-free) is obviously removable.
It is remarkably light weight! Leather is maybe Capeskin (?) - no expert for identifying leather, but it is softer and lighter than my German bullhides.
Back with action-pleats and elasticated sides. Scalloped yokes that are so typical for continental European sports-wear.
Brass zippers from "Eclair" and "Vitex" (1930's type - right Baron?)

Best Regards

Nice. Gotta love those French jackets. Nice also to see that in addition to ZIPP, Eclair were also using the Lightning stop boxes. The crossover between zipper companies in Europe at this time is really fascinating. The cast (?) stop box puts it later in your time range, btw. The sliders are also of a later type; the Eclair pullers don't seem to have changed much through the years. I would say late 40s or probably more realistically 50s on this one.

It doesn't appear to be sheep but working from photos is always difficult. The French tended to use cow and goat, at least fro the jackets I've seen.

Thanks for the dating help. Yes the stop box is cast, with an inserted lug.



Alas the manufacturer's label under the collar has come off.

Regarding the leather, I compared it with my German jackets that are hard and heavy steer - so I figured it had to be some different animal.
But you are right - it is not as "flimsy" as capeskin/sheep sometimes is. So goat is a likely guess... then again, the one-piece back is quite a large cut of leather.
I'm not sure whether a (normal domestic) goat can provide such a piece.
Is cow lighter than steer? If so - that would be a possibility.

Most cowhide is much much lighter than the vintage German stuff, which I've often heard referred to as "heavy bullhide". It really is some special heavy stuff, and almost impossible to wear, IMO.

Goats get quite big, esp the ones used for jacket leather!

Beautiful jacket. May I ask where you found it?

Thanks. I found it on ebay.

Fastuni, I'm new here. This is a very old post but this jacket you are explaining here sounds very much like one I just purchased on eBay. I wanted to see if you could send me any pictures of this jacket as the posted pics are no longer being hosted by Photobucket it seems. I will send you a private message.