A controversery (Andrus Kozlov)

 

Valley FarmIn 1903, following his travels through Europe and Russia, Joseph B. Thomas Jr. published accounts of his journey in several American and European magazines. He was critical of European Borzois and boasted that he had discovered the Perchino kennel in Russia, where the “true” Borzois of the “Ancient Type” could be found. The Duchess of Newcastle allowed Mr. Thomas to proceed for some time and to send reports at will to various newspapers, but eventually she felt that the moment had come to teach Joseph B. Thomas Jr. a lesson. She wrote to the American paper Field and Fancy and sent copies of her letter to Our Dogs and Stockkeeper, including the Dutch magazine Nederlandsche Sport on 23 January 1904. Therefore, this translation from Dutch may contain inaccuracies and errors. My apologies in advance.
The Duchess of Newcastle openly acknowledged the faults of her Borzois imported from Russia, something that very few dog owners and breeders are willing to do. Her letter is rather long, so I will post it in separate postings, with some cuts, in order to include pictures of the dogs she mentions.
Her letter, dignified in its simplicity, read as follows:

A letter signed by Joseph B. Thomas recently appeared in an American dog journal, and a copy of it was also published in Stockkeeper. I

The Duchess of Newcastle

should be grateful if you would publish this letter in your columns, since several of Mr. Thomas’s assertions can be refuted.

First of all, he suggests that American and English Borzois are of approximately equal value. Considering that the most successful Borzoi in America was Marksman, a dog from my kennels and sold to America for a mere trifle because in England he could achieve no more than Very Highly Commended in good company, I may point out that he was never beaten in America. Further comment is unnecessary.
The account of Lihodka‘s defeat in England is also inaccurate. She was certainly not rejected because of her rich and beautiful coat, but because of her bat ears, upright hocks, flat back, and coarse head. /…/ Judging from the photographs I have seen of Mr. Thomas’s imports, the male Bistri appears to be a good specimen, although, unless he was shedding coat, he seems rather short-haired. This is curious, because his father, one of the Grand Duke’s dogs, was exceptionally well coated and had won the Gold Medal.
The bitch Sorva cannot be compared with the male. Her head and coat are her only good points. She possesses the same faults as two other dogs I imported from the same kennel some years ago, namely an excessively long and flat body and extremely poor limbs and feet.
My note: In the same journal from 1904 there is a letter from Artem Boldarev, where he gives explanations about Lihotka. The Duchess of Newcastle did not know that Marksman and her Ch Tsaretsa were littermates, whose grandmother was her, Zavalda, previously imported from Russia.
She also confused the kennels and dogs of Artem Boldarev and Nikolai Boldarev.
Photos – Marksman, Lihotka
I add J. Thomas’s article, published in The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News on 19 December 1903.
Author Andrus Kozlov

marksman
Ch Marksman

Lihodka

Ch Perchino Bistri

Ch Sorva of Woronsova

 

Year of Event:

Country:

America (USA)

Personal Collections:

Source:

 

Author:

Dan Persson

Dogs:

Persons: