Thomas Bewick’s Dogs
Tickets are available for my tour throughout September & October
Click here to book for THE GENTLE AUTHOR’S TOUR OF SPITALFIELDS
I consulted my copy of Thomas Bewick’s General History of Quadrupeds 1824 that I found in the Spitalfields Market recently to see what breeds were familiar two hundred years ago – and perhaps the major difference I discovered is that many breeds which were working dogs then are domestic now.
The Shepherd’s Dog
The Cur Dog
The Greenland Dog
The Bulldog
The Mastiff
The Ban Dog
The Dalmatian
The Irish Greyhound
The Greyhound
The Lurcher
The Terrier
The Beagle
The Harrier
The Fox Hound
The Old English Hound
The Spanish Pointer
The English Setter
The Newfoundland Dog
The Large Rough Water Dog
The Large Water Spaniel
The Small Water Spaniel
The Springer
The Comforter
The Turnspit
You may also like to take a look at
The turnspit dog might well warrant a whole new posting. It could turn out to be the most common dog to be found in Spitalfields in the eighteenth century. Apparently they were taken to church on chilly Sunday mornings to be footwarmers and then presumable had to get back into their treadmill to turn the Sunday roast.
How wonderful to have found an early edition! I have to make do with the 2013 reissue for which I was partly responsible: https://bit.ly/3REQa51
The Turnspit dog is indeed interesting. I remember some years ago I watched a domestic history programme in which a a wheel spit still existed in an old kitchen, and for the sake of research some meat was cooked on the open fire using the wheel. A little dog similar to the Turnspit dog was placed inside to illustrate how it worked. Although the little dog did his best, he couldn’t turn the wheel that well because he couldn’t get the traction with his legs. It was indicated that the original dog must have had a longer body…as the above drawing shows!
Sounds slightly odd but both this on dogs and yesterdays’ cats, also from Bewick, is interesting because of the date in 1824. It comes after the first passing of law to defend several types of animals in 1822 called The Martin’s Act.However, it then became realised after 1822 that the new law did NOT cover domestic animals such as dogs and cats. Despite many campaigns – and the work of several artists on themes of such animals – the law to protect them was not agreed until 1835. Here Joseph Pease, Quaker and MP for South Durham and committee member in then Society for the Protection of Animals had the law passed and royal assent and called The Protection of Animals Act. There had been a range of writing and images as well as campaigns to bring about this new law since 1822.
A friend and antique dealer told me: Amazing how much some of the breeds have changed. Some ceramic artists copied the Bewick images onto pottery and porcelain so I recognise quite a few of the images. The pointer was even turned into a porcelain sculpture by Derby around 1825.
It was my understanding that the Turnspit Dog is now extinct as a breed. Many of the others have changed and some were merged with other dogs. The Victorians were responsible for a lot of that with breeding for shows. I guess the Turnspit didn’t make the cut with the Victorians. Too common?