A Deerhound Selection
Large, shaggy Greyhounds have been known in Scotland for at least 500 years. Early in its history, the breed now known as the Deerhound was essentially the same as the Irish Wolfhound and was then called the Scottish Wolfhound. But over a period of time, it grew slightly smaller, as its main quarry changed from the (now vanishing) wolf to the (still plentiful) deer.
The Deerhound was immensely popular as a deer courser in Scotland up until the 18th Century, but when efficient firearms arrived in the Highlands, its usefulness was greatly diminished, and its numbers inevitably began to dwindle. Then, at the beginning of the Victorian period in the 19th Century, it returned to favor. The Deerhound is one of only a handful of breeds that has changed little over time, and breeders today are very proud of that fact.
In the early and middle years of the 19th Century, Queen Victoria and artist Sir Edwin Landseer, with their patronage and portrayal of breeds close to them, helped to secure these breeds’ future. One of these was the Deerhound, and Landseer completed a number of pictures featuring the breed, including “Maida” (1824), “Scene at Abbotsford” (1827) and “Highlanders Returning from Deer Stalking” (1829).
In 1837, he painted “The Duke of Sutherland’s Children,” with Lady Evelyn Leverson Gower and the Marquis of Stafford portrayed with two Deerhounds, a Toy Spaniel and a fawn, with Dunrobin Castle in the distance. The Duke was a breeder of Deerhounds, but his hounds were reputed to be small. The Copeland porcelain plaque of circa 1860 is decorated with a fine engraving of this picture.
Landseer’s favorite Deerhound was “Hafed,” and in 1834 he painted her portrait, the hound wearing a wide leather collar with plaques and lead ring attached. Copeland was not the only 19th-Century pottery to benefit commercially from reproducing engravings of popular works by Landseer. Among the others was Wedgwood, and “Hafed” was one of his works reproduced on a series of tiles.
Queen Victoria and Landseer did much to publicize Scotland, and what was more Scottish in people’s minds in the 19th Century than the Highlands? Countless scenes of shooting and coursing in the Highlands and the Highland way of life were produced. Not only Landseer but other great artists of the period down to jobbing provincial artist were all producing pictures to satisfy the demand. The well-observed and sympathetically painted picture of a ghillie with two Deerhounds by an unknown artist working in the 19th Century was sold by Tennants for an above estimate £190.
I’ve featured the table before, but it is worth repeating, as it is one of the most important pieces of cast-iron art casting. It is also one of the most important pieces of dog art from the mid-19th-Century. It was made by the Darby family at Coalbrookdale, situated in the Ironbridge Gorge, which saw the birth of the Industrial Revolution and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Designed by John Bell, the son of a solicitor, it was made in 1855 for the Paris International Exhibition. Cast in 20 pieces, it weighs 16 hundredweight (almost 1,800 pounds, practically a ton). The top is painted to represent marble, and the four life-size gilded Deerhounds sit on plinths at each corner. It was purchased from the exhibition by John Hargreaves from Lancashire as a wedding present for his son, the price being in the region of £300. Since then, it has changed hands a number of times, the last time being in the mid-1980s, when it sold for around £60,000. It is now “back home” in Coalbrookdale, where it stands as one of the main exhibits in the Museum of Iron.
I’m not sure what the collective noun for a pack of Deerhounds is, but the engraving by Temple of eight has to be the image that shows the largest number. The “Ettington” Deerhounds were owned by William Gibbins, whose mother, Emma, was a member of the Cadbury chocolate family, an important Quaker family in the area. Gibbins was a contemporary and close neighbor of S.E. Shirley, breeder of many breeds and founder of what is now the Royal Kennel Club.
The three in the front are named, left to right, “Shakespear” (sic), “Audrey” and “Rosalind,” home-bred littermates born in August 1888. Gibbins and his hounds were never major players on the Deerhound stage, and “Audrey” was the most successful he bred, being a first-prize winner at a number of shows and best Deerhound bitch at Crufts in 1893.
A Deerhound that did make a significant contribution to the breed was “Ch. Swift,” who was born in 1889. According to the “Kennel Club Stud Book,” his owner/breeder was W.H. Singer, but on the Deerhound pedigree website the breeder is given as H. Rowson and the owners as B. and T.H. Hill. “Swift” won seven Championship Prizes (as Challenge Certificates were known then) and was best Deerhound dog at Crufts in 1893 and 1894. He sired several champions and was considered “a magnificent hound, a famous sire, one of the pillars of the breed and one of the best specimens of the day.” The bronze of “Swift” was sculpted by William Calder Marshall (1813-1894), who was best known for his figures from mythology rather than realistically observed animals.
The final two in my selection are a silver whistle hallmarked for 1886 by Sampson Mordan and Co. of London, a silversmith and co-inventor of the first patented mechanical pencil, which sold for £300, and an electroplate stirrup cup sold by Bonhams for £896. The cup was modelled by James Barclay Hennell, famous for his novelty items produced in the third quarter of the 19th Century.
