By now you all must know that I have become completely enthralled about the story of England born Ch. Choonam Brilliantine, purchased by Mrs Hoover (of the vacuum cleaner dynasty). “George” as he was named went on to become one of the 5 top foundation sires for our breed in America and a record winning Champion in both England and America. READ MUCH MORE HERE
So earlier in 2019 I was approached by long time chow breeders and art collector friends, asking if I knew anything about this etching they acquired a number of years ago. You can imagine the sound of “thump” as my jaw dropped and tears came to my eyes. I have only seen this in a photo in one place and very little info about it. Now I had a reason to dig deeper and discovered the artist Bert Cobb was well known for creating etchings of famous dogs in the 1920’s-1930s. This piece is signed and Brilliantines name is also hand written by the artist on the etching,so there is no doubt who this stately chow was. There are even personal notations on the back of the etching.
The owners of the artwork were looking to part with this piece from their collection and graciously offered it to me on a payment plan so it could be archived and preserved for generations to come. Thank you so very much Phil Capozzolo and John Miksa for giving me the opportunity to own such a rare and historic artwork. Its a Win/Win for all of us and most of all a big win for our breed history archives.
I do not know of any other copies of this etching in existence. If any of my readers has one or has seen one in a collection I would love to hear about it. ChowTales curator ~Sandra Miller
MORE INFORMATION ABOUT ALBERT ANDREWS “BERT” COBB BELOW. CLICK “SOURCE” TO READ THE ENTIRE STORY BY AUTHOR BILL EDWARDS
” Cobb changed directions in his drawing career in the early 1920s, and starting in 1923 he devoted himself mostly to dry point etchings of famous dogs. Many of them were commissioned by the owners of award winning canines, and his reputation grew to the point where he was almost constantly in demand. This further resulted in multiple coast to coast gallery exhibits from the mid-1920s to the early 1930s. The most prestigious of these showings were held at the Kraushaar Galleries in New York. Cobb also compiled at least two books of his artwork published in the early 1930s, Portraits of Dogs and Hunting Dogs, in addition to doing fine illustrations for many others. He was also the unofficial cartoonist for the Republican National Committee.” SOURCE
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