Bookreview by Michael Rosser

‘Fame, Infamy and Frenchies’ takes us to all sorts of trade, literary, fashion, artistic and other personalities in the public eye. There is much really interesting and intriguing detail about characters past and present who have owned Frenchies.

The next chapter goes to Prince von Ratibor’s castle and the subsequent 2000 auction of his French Bulldog collection following the Prince’s death (including in DM some estimates and selling prices).

The author inserted a warning about ‘growlers’ “Made of papier mâché and virtually life-size, the dog has a swivel head and a chain to its neck which opens his mouth when he growls … Collectors should be very careful when buying and satisfy themselves that any provenance is genuine …” (This is allegedly due to ‘aged’ copies made in the Far East.)

This wonderful book then permits us to learn a great deal about the Girard, Grebe, Hargreaves and Henderson collections from a personal viewpoint and how they came into being and also to see beautiful pictures of some of the remarkable, rare and intriguing items from those extraordinary gatherings of things Frenchie. Again this is all accompanied by sumptuous color illustrations.

‘A Frenchie Miscellany’ – in this last chapter Nick Waters states “In the pages of this book I have attempted to give in words and pictures an insight into the history, heritage and art of the French Bulldog and to show how the breed has touched and inspired the lives of so many people, in so many ways, and from all walks of life.” The author has more than succeeded – if you only buy one French Bulldog book, buy this.

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