Bookreview by Michael Rosser

In ‘Portraits, Pets and People’ Nick Waters hopes that the chapter “will give a broad insight into the depth of work that has been produced over the last hundred and thirty years or so, how artists have observed the breed, famous artists who have painted it and some famous dogs that have been portrayed.” The chapter does so and in clear, lavish and beautiful style and color. As with the whole book, the human interest is interwoven in text and pictures and provides a delightful and painlessly instructive entertainment.

The chapter takes us through Frenchie paintings and painters as well as famous names and history. In particular many recent artists and some of their paintings are mentioned in the text, whetting the appetite for even more illustrations than in the chapter.

‘Byngo and Friends’ gives us a history of porcelain and the ceramic models of Frenchies, which only a considerable knowledge and expertise could provide. Anyone collecting French Bulldog models should buy the book for this chapter alone. For instance “A tip for collectors – if the factory mark on the base of models produced by many factories has a scratch through it, this indicates that it is a factory second, even though any blemishes may be difficult to detect.”

The illustrations, color-values, definition, lay-out and captions are of high quality and complement and interact with the text. For example, the chapter gets its name from the Denby-Ware dog and on p88 there is a delightful color photo of two shelves of about 32 different Byngos, with the caption “An area of collecting in its own right, and indeed there are collectors who collect nothing else, is the Denby-Ware dog known as Byngo made by Joseph Bourne and Son Ltd. at their pottery in Denby, Derbyshire. Byngo is distinctive and once seen always remembered; chunky, whimsical, almost childlike in the modeling, with large ears, piercing eyes, a black dot nose and pencil thin lips.”

Nick gives the warnings that “The models are easy to copy and there are far more copies about than there are original Denby Ware dogs … Some of the copies have heart-shaped eyes rather than the trademark piercing black round ones …”

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