Red, White and... New?
There aren't too many things that will heat up a conversation
between Frenchie Breeders faster than the topic of color. Pied,
brindle, cream - everyone has a favorite, and an opinion.
Recently, I listened as some breeders debated so called "new
colors" - fawn pied in particular. Several of them decried
fawn pieds as being "fad colors" - something new that
has only recently appeared. One breeder even speculated that
this color was as a result of breeders "crossing into English
Bulldogs", and stated that red and white fawn pieds "didn't
exist before the 70's". As some one who has owned red and
white fawn pieds, I began to wonder about this topic. I have
only bred a few litters of them, but I must admit that I hold
a soft spot for these striking red heads. But is fawn pied in
fact a "new color"?
A review of French Bulldog literature and magazines from the
seventies and eighties will let you know that red and whites
have been around at least since then. One of the most famous
was surely Janis Hampton's lovely "Fleur". A solid
red and white bitch, Janis and Fleur did quite a lot of winning
on the West coast. Relatively speaking, this can still be considered
to be fairly 'recent', in terms of the history of our breed,
so I decided to look for examples from a much earlier time period.
A find I made one afternoon in an antiques shop went a long
way to answering the question of how long red and whites have
been in existence. Three tea cards from the early part of the
century indicate that French Bulldogs were not unknown at that
time, and perhaps not even uncommon.
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The
Players Tobacco Card
The first card, issued by the Players cigarette company
and illustrated by well known artist Arthur Wardle, depicts
a striking red and white fawn pied with deep coloring
and black pigment.
While I have seen Wardle paintings of French Bulldogs
before, this is the only one I have seen with this coloration.
The dog is most definitely a red and white fawn, not a
pied simply colored in as such by an unknown colorist,
as some cards were. Wardle's painting is quite detailed,
showing the darker pigment around the eyes, ear rims and
mask which we see in fawn pieds today.
Compare this card with an image of our red and white
fawn pied, Tessa.
Note the similarity in terms of both the markings, and
the placement of the markings, surrounding the eyes. Even
the ear rims are clearly depicted as being 'outlined'
with fine black shadings.
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Carrera Tobacco Card
The second one is a very unique card, and was issued
by the Carreras company of England. It is one in a set
of fifty two cards, which, when fully collected, comprise
a card game called the "Black Cat Racing Greyhound
Game".
This card shows a paler red and white fawn pied, artist
unknown. The issue date of this series is approximately
1918, and this card and one showing a brindle Frenchie
are the only known non hound breeds in the series.
The dog on this card is a pale, almost tangerine shade,
arguably more of a honey pied than a red and white. Still,
it clearly shows a fawn pied dog, no matter what the shade
of fawn might be.
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Moustafa
Tobacco Card
The final card I've located with this coloration is the
even more rare Moustafa Tobacco card.
Issued in 1924, and illustrated by artist Leo Chambers,
this card is from a set of 40 cards entitled "Leo
Chambers Dogs Heads". The card, like the Players
and Carrera cards above, was given away by Tobacco companies
as a free premium, and was inserted into a packet of cigarettes.
The front of the card shows a picture of the French Bulldog
drawn by Leo Chambers while the back of the card has a
brief description of this breed.
The coloration on this dog seems to be a muddy shade
of dark red fawn pied. My initial impression was that
this might, in fact, be a shade of deeply brindled pied,
but again note the clearly depicted black eye rims and
'points' on the face. I am doubtful that these fine details
would have been clearly enough noted on a brindle pied
for an artist to go to the trouble of depicting them.
I believe that what this card illustrates is, indeed,
another red fawn pied dog. |
The interesting, and perhaps revealing, thing about these cards
is that we can assume that none were drawn by breeders of French
Bulldogs, but rather by casual observers of the breed. If indeed
red and whites were rare or unusual in those days, it would
stand to reason that an illustrator would choose a more commonly
known color to depict.
At any rate, both cards clearly negates the assertion that
red and white pieds were "unknown" prior to the 1970s
- although it is possible they were unknown before the *1870's*!
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