ROUGH COLLIE ARCHIVES - CANINE ILLUSTRATIONS

 

 

Searching for information about ‘The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News’ I came across the web-site of a book breaker who specialised in original etchings from late 19th century publications.

 

 

Much as I arbour this type of dealer who could avoid being drawn to a series of illustrations of exhibits at various major canine events from the late 1880s.

Breaking a long- standing decision to avoid this particular kind of vandalism I purchased three full page illustrations, all of which included prominent Collies of the day, and admit I was not disappointed with my purchases for being actual pages from the ‘Illustrated London News’ rather than facsimiles, they are printed on the reverse side and in the case of two of these pages the reverse side includes a report of the show depicted.

right - Louis Wain’s rather whimsical illustration of exhibits at The Kennel Club’s 28th Exhibition of Sporting and Other Dogs – 18-21 January 1887 includes illustrations of Eclipse winner of the Dog Challenge class and a group of three from Mr S. Boddington’s Metchley Kennel which undoubtedly includes Metchley Wonder who won his Puppy Class - if you click on the image you will see a full size reproduction in pdf format.

above left -Mr A.C. Ashwin’s Watch as depicted by Harrison Weir in his illustration of
winners at the Birmingham Dog Show Society’s 18th National Dog Show – 3-6 December 1877

 

 

right - Another Harrison Weir  illustration this time of Dublin Scott who 
won the Dog Challenge Class at The  Kennel Club’s 27th Exhibition of Sporting 
and Other Dogs – 29 June-2 July 1886

 

These pages have now been scanned for inclusion in the Rough Collie National Archive collection, and I am investigating ways of reproducing facsimiles of both the illustrations and accompanying show reports with a view to raising additional funds for this venture.