Before the pocket-size Pomeranian charmed Marie-Antoinette, it pulled sledges and guarded livestock
Once a hardworking dog of the Baltic coast, the Pomeranian became a favourite of royalty and fashionable society. Agnes Stamp traces the remarkable rise of this spirited little breed.
‘The cult of the toy Pomeranian is a most fascinating hobby, as well as a fashionable craze, that charming breed having made rapid strides within the last few years,’ Country Life reported in 1903.
First seen in Britain in 1807, this ‘elegant featherweight’ of breeds was a pet of George III and just ‘as the House of Orange brought us the pug, so may the House of Hanover have given us the Pomeranian’.
The breed — also historically known as a loup-loup or spitzdog — is a native of Pomerania, a district in northeastern Germany, on the shores of the Baltic Sea. The spitz breeds (of which the Pomeranian is the smallest) are of ancient origin and were originally widely scattered throughout Europe and parts of Asia and China. These dogs have pulled sledges, and guarded the homestead and the livestock, as well as being killed both for food and their pelts.
Edith Stone with two Pomeranians, including Tuxedo Marvel, in about 1910–15.
In England, white spitz or Pomeranian dogs were kept as ‘dogs of the drawing-room’, appearing frequently in Gainsborough’s paintings such as Perdita (1781) and The Morning Walk (1785). These dogs were larger than the ones that would eventually be bred for the show ring.
Stonehenge described the breed in The Dog (1872): ‘This cheerful little dog is extremely common on the continent of Europe where it goes by the name of loup-loup. Until lately it was very rare in England, but within the last 20 years it has become very common as a house dog. It is not embraced, however, by the fanciers and is not prized highly by anyone, being of no use but as a companion.’
Stonehenge, however, had underestimated the trend of the times. In 1891 Queen Victoria became the first reigning monarch to exhibit at an established dog show by sending collies and Pomeranians to Crufts, and in 1897 Country Life reported that: ‘Mrs C. Houlker, of Accrington, a well-known lady exhibitor, has every reason to be pleased with her visit to the Ladies’ Dog Show in the Botanic Gardens, Regent’s Park, for during the show the big sum of £200 for her winning Toy Pomeranian, Black Prince, was offered and accepted. No such sum has ever before been paid for a Pomeranian weighing a little under 6lb, but as he is considered the most typical one ever bred, his purchaser, a Manchester newspaper proprietor, has not paid dearly for his ambition to own a dog quite at the top of the tree... His show career has been a phenomenal one, and, although but a little over two years old, he can boast of having beaten every Pomeranian of note. Since he was first shown, when a little over 12 months old, he has won over 100 prizes, including cups for the best non-sporting dog in the show, and championships.’
By 1909 Pomeranian breeding was such a ‘profitable hobby’ that Country Life reported on a lady ‘who was said to have purchased a motor-car from one year’s proceedings of her kennels’.
Country Life suggested that as ‘a pet and companion no other toy dog can equal ... the charming, dainty, loving, and lovable little Pomeranian’ — a compact, short-coupled little dog, with a fox-like head and small, erect ears.
‘To see the Spitzes let out is one of the prettiest sights at Windsor, as they go, helter-skelter, into their paddock, a flurry of bright fluff where the sun catches their gold and silver coats scattered about on the green turn,’ the magazine reported on visiting Queen Victoria’s kennels at Windsor in 1897. ‘How prettily they answer to their names when Hill, the kennel-man, calls them, each in turn all alertness, in perfect attitude for inspection.’
This is an extract from 'The Country Life Book of Dogs' (Rizzoli, £50) by Agnes Stamp.
