Читать книгу Pomeranian - Juliette Cunliffe - Страница 11

The colors of the Pomeranian are wide-ranging and it seems that, in the past, several of the European countries specialized in different colors. The white Pomeranian was a native of France, while the red is believed to have come from Italy. Although black and white Pomeranians were to be found in the 19th century, these were seemingly rarely good specimens of the breed, creams and reds being the more popular colors then. In the 1880s, it was said that the breed in Britain was practically confined to white Pomeranians, their weight in the region of 9 kg (20 lb). However, from the author Dalziel, we learn that there was a strain of rich fawns kept in the neighborhood of Birmingham about 1860.

MEET THE SPITZEN

The Pomeranian derives from the family of dogs we know today as the German Spitzen, of which five breeds are recognized by Europe’s Fédération Cynologique Internationale (FCI). The largest of these is the German Wolfspitz, standing 18 in and possessing the characteristic spitz coat in a wolf gray coloration. The Deutscher Grossspitz, sometimes called the Giant or Great Spitz, stands at least 16 in and can be colored in any solid color. The Deutscher Mittelspitz (Standard), standing about 14 in; Kleinspitz (Small or Miniature), standing about 11 in; and Zwergspitz (Toy), standing about 8 in, complete the family. The Kleinspitz has retained the appellation Victorian Pomeranian, and the Zwergspitz is identical to the Pomeranian in size.

In 1911, the first orange

Pomeranian in Britain was Offley Henry Drew who, mated to Eng. Ch. Mars, set the foundation for the orange color that was to become so popular. Not until the 1930s did a wide range of uniform colors become available in Britain, with orange becoming an especially fashionable color during the 20th century. Whites are now only seen occasionally, but blacks seem to have had something of a revival in the last twenty years.