Every time I unearth one of these elusive “oldest of the old” puzzle pieces in our British chow history I feel as though the lottery has been won. I purchased this single page from THE SKETCH magazine (England) to get a better look at this article and of course the 2 photos depicting Chows owned by the Princess of Wales. The Princess (Later Queen Alexandra) also had a chow by the name of Plumpie pictured at the bottom of this article and featured at THIS LINK
The discovery of these additional 2 chows that the Princess owned, besides Plumpie, was an incredible find.
I have been searching for a biography on the artist , Ernest M. Jessop with little luck, however there are many mentions and examples of his illustrations in everything from books, to magazines and periodicals. He must have been a well respected artist to have been commissioned to create 64 silverpoint etchings of the Royal Family pets.
BELOW IS A PHOTO OF QUEEN ALEXANDRA WITH ANOTHER OF HER CHOWS NAMED “PLUMPIE”
WHILE RESEARCHING FOXIE’S NAME …..ANOTHER BIG BONUS FIND WAS ADDED TO THE ROYAL “FAMILY TREE”..SEE BELOW
Im impressed with the appearance of those chows; imo superior to the present version. Btw are those two Japanese Chin in that one photo? They actually have some muzzle. Thank you for posting i truly enjoyed this incredible “find”.
Thank you so very much for writing Mary! IMO as well, not all of the “improvements” made to the Chow were to benefit an almost perfect and “natural” breed. I love the look of the heritage chows .