We shall continue our story about crafts with a story about the last – and for years the only – furriers in the municipality of Gornji Milanovac. Those people were Slobodan and Desanka Maksimović. Slobodan was born in Majdan in 1912. Since he was a good student, “The Company” sent him to Daruvar to learn furrier trade. Between the wars, “The Company” took care of good, but poor students and sent them to different places to learn those trades which were needed in their hometowns. After four years of learning the trade, he returned to Majdan where he started doing this business as the youngest and the only furrier in the area. Soon, he moved to town due to the greater demand for his skills. Slobodan’s wife Desanka learned the trade as well after they got married. They did this job all their life. Furriers were craftsmen who did leather tanning, and that was why they were known as makers of sheepskin coats. Until the XIX century, simple cut sheepskin coats were made, without ornaments. It was only later that they started being ornamented and coloured. At the beginning of the XX century, other leather garments started being made. Desanka and Slobodan tanned the leather of both domestic and wild animals to be used as a “floor mat”. They also sewed sheepskin coats, fur hats – they were especially known for “Astrakhan” fur hats – then fur coats and other leather garments. Everything was custom-made, and leather tanning was done manually. They used “Singer” sewing machines. Tanning season started in the spring time. They would take the skin first, then tan it, and finally wash it in the river. That skin would then be died, tailored and sewed. The basic furrier tool included a furrier knife, a scraper, a barrel, a tub, a small tub, and a “Singer” sewing machine.

Following Slobodan’s demise in 1982, Desanka continued this business. Their sons, besides having their own vocation, are also certified furriers. Both granddaughters and grandsons finished schools related to this trade and leather processing. Not even one member of the Maksimović family lives in Gornji Milanovac nowadays. Desanka worked until the day she died in 2008. One can say for the job of a furrier that it is disappearing. With the appearance of the industry, this trade, like almost all other old trades, gradually started declining.