Ch. Loga of the Arctic – Samoyed History Captured on Canvas
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by Ria Hörter
The oil painting Ch. Loga of the Arctic, by English artist Frederick Thomas Daws, dates from 1932. Loga, a male Samoyed by Mustan of Farningham out of Sara, was born in 1925. In the fifth generation, his pedigree shows unspecified ancestors, such as “Siberian male” and “Siberian female.”
The Majestic Loga
Bred by Mrs. D. Edwards, Loga was owned by Marion Keyte-Perry’s Arctic Kennel. (Not to be confused with Mrs. D.L. Kerry’s Kobe Kennel.)
He was described as “the majestic Loga [with] a coat of pearly white, massive bone, dense black points, and an arrestingly beautiful head.” He was never beaten in Puppy or Junior classes at any Championship show. In 1928, Loga gained three CCs and became a champion.
At first, Marion Keyte-Perry possessed only males, all magnificent stud dogs, but in 1928 she decided to add bitches to her successful Samoyed family and began breeding her own winners.
Miss Keyte-Perry’s kennel and dogs were described in the December 1937 issue of Our Dogs: “She is delighted to show her lovely Samoyeds in their comfortable little chalets. There are acres of land for free exercising, and each chalet is complete with a big grass run and a concrete enclosure. In fact, it is a little colony, absolutely self-contained, with kitchens, domestic quarters, kennel-maids’ bedrooms and parlour, and a huge playground for the pups. Visitors are very frequent to these famous kennels, and they are always accorded the greatest welcome by their owners, the kennel-staff, and all the friendly ‘Arctics’.”
Appropriate Setting
Without a doubt, it was Marion Keyte-Perry who commissioned the painting of Loga in the Arctic setting of ice and snow, with a sled, some freight and other Samoyeds, a ship in a small piece of open water, and icebergs. Loga’s full name is written in the bottom left corner; in the bottom right corner it’s signed F.T. Daws/32. In 1932, Loga was seven years old.
Although this painting was made more than 80 years ago, it seems modern. Authorities on dog paintings are of the opinion that Ch. Loga of the Arctic is one of Daws’ best works. The blues and white beautifully convey the Arctic landscape.
Samoiedskaïa Sabaka
The Samoyed originated in northwest Siberia, the habitat of the Samoyedic people (now known as the Nenets), a peaceful, nomadic tribe whose vast herds of reindeer provided their food, clothing, milk, housing and transport. The dogs’ main job was to herd and protect the reindeer, but they were also suited for hauling, hunting, and watching over the children. In frigid Siberian nights they were used as heaters. The heavy hauling was done by reindeer; Samoyeds were used to pull sledges with smaller freight. To put it briefly, the Samoyed was a jack-of-all-trades.
A 17th-century explorer mentioned “white dogs that pulled the sledges,” but very little is known about the Siberian tribes in Arctic Russia. Polar explorers mentioned “Siberian dogs” in their diaries and sometimes “Samoyed dog.” The word “Samoyed” has several meanings: it’s the name of a tribe, the name of the area were the tribe lived, and the name of their dogs.
Norwegian polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen used “Samoyed dogs” in 1893-94 when he tried to reach the North Pole. In his journals, he noted the dogs’ heights and weights, so we know that the breed has changed very little since that time.
The FCI name for the breed is Samoiedskaïa Sabaka. Other names are Laika Samojedskaja Bjelkier, Samoiedskaya Sobaka and Nenetskaya Laika.
Early History
Quite often, Samoyeds used by expeditions had brown or black markings. It was Russian dog trader Alexander Trontheim who promoted the dogs with white or cream-colored coats, which lived with tribes in the more eastern part of the country. Trontheim was one of the dog traders who supplied various polar expeditions. Among other dogs, there were three Samoyeds in the Jackson-Hamsworth expedition to Franz-Joseph Land in 1894-97.
For three months in 1889, Mr. and Mrs. Kilburn-Scott (related to Antarctic explorer Robert Scott) lived in the midst of the Samoyed people. When Ernest Kilburn-Scott returned to England, he brought along a brown male puppy named Sabarka. Later, Kilburn-Scott imported a cream-colored bitch, Whitey Petchora, from the Urals, followed by Musti, a snow-white male from Siberia.
In 1895, the Kilburn-Scotts bred their first litter in England (Farningham); one of them – Mustan of Farningham – would become Loga’s sire. Before the First World War, Farningham Samoyeds formed the basis of the present West European Samoyed. Before Mrs. Kilburn-Scott registered her Farningham affix, her exhibits had no distinguishing title, but the Samoyed has always been “so intimately associated with her name that nothing will ever make the breed other than her very own.”
Royals and Aristocrats
In 1866, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck sent Edward, Prince of Wales, “a Russian dog, a Samoyed, probably the first specimen of the breed in England.” Edward – later King Edward VII – married Danish Princess Alexandra. The Queen became an ardent fancier, and descendants of her dogs can be found today in many English and American kennels.
Survivors and descendants of the polar expedition sled teams were bred in England for their beauty as well as their working attributes. The first show Samoyeds were exhibited in Leeds, England, in 1893. The Kennel Club recognized the breed in 1909, and in 1920, the English breed club was founded. Ernest Kilburn-Scott wrote the first breed standard in 1909. It is said that his wife, Clara, gave the breed its present name, but other sources state that the name was given in 1892, during a cynological congress in Sweden.
The first Samoyeds in Europe arrived in 1912, often imported from the Kilburn-Scotts. Royals and aristocrats were fanciers. Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands (1880-1962) bred two litters (van het Aardhuis) with Ibur Stella, a Norwegian Samoyed bitch imported in 1955, a gift from her daughter, Queen Juliana.
Today’s Samoyeds participate in conformation, agility, obedience, sledding, skijoring, scootering, herding, weight pull, packing and therapy.
Samoyeds in the United States
There are various stories about the first Samoyed in the United States. According to The Complete Samoyed by R.H. and D. Ward, “The first Samoyed registered in America was owned by the Princess de Montyglyon, who had emigrated to the United States in 1904. In 1902, Princess de Montyglyon was in St. Petersburg, Russia, at a dog show when a Samoyed dragging its chain started following her. The princess, who had Chow Chows and Cocker Spaniels, was captivated by the beautiful white dog with the black-lined smile. The dog, a Russian Champion named Moustan of Argenteau, was owned by the Grand Duke Michael, brother of Czar Nicholas II. The Princess remarked that she would give anything for the dog, but she heard it was impossible to obtain the Siberian breed. Days later, the Grand Duke gave the Champion dog to the princess as a gift, delivering it to her railway coach in a basket of orchids and roses. The Princess also owned one of the lead sled dogs from Roald Amundsen’s successful expedition to the South Pole in 1911.”
In December 1906, Russian Ch. Moustan of Argenteau became the first Samoyed registered in the American Kennel Club Stud Book. Many Samoyeds in the United States today, including several champions, are descendants of Moustan. His ancestors were unknown, “Siberian male” and “Siberian female.”
In the States, the Samoyed is classified in the AKC Working Group; in England, he’s in the Pastoral Group; elsewhere in the world, the Samoiedskaïa Sabaka is in FCI Group 5 (Spitz and primitive types).
Royal Doulton Works
The artist Frederick Thomas Daws, who is regarded as one of the best English dog painters, painted many of the prize dogs of well-known fanciers in Great Britain, India and America. He was born in London in October 1878, and studied at the Lambeth School of Art. At 18 years old, he exhibited his work Companions in Trouble at the Royal Academy. Daws also worked in bronze, and many of his models were reproduced in porcelain. In 1930, he became the main artist at the Royal Doulton Works, which produced the Champion Dog figurines. Today, these porcelain Royal Doulton dogs are expensive collectibles. Commerce played a role in Daws’ life; Spratt Dog Food Company published a series of 36 picture postcards of his paintings.
Frederick Daws passed away in Beckenham (Kent) in 1956.
Loga’s owner, Marion Keyte-Perry, was president of the Ladies Branch of The Kennel Club from 1948 to 1963. Ch. Loga of the Arctic is now in the collection ofThe Kennel Club.
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Posted by ralbee
on Jun 13 2015. Filed under Current Articles, Editorial, Featured.
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