Abraham Hondius was a painter of the Dutch Golden Age. He operated out of Rotterdam until 1666, when he moved to London.
This is a portrait of a mastiff that would have been relatively common in seventeenth century England.
Unlike the modern mastiff, this dog is almost entirely white.
Many mastiffs were originally of this color, which shows their relationship to the bulldog.
The modern mastiff, which comes in brindle, fawn, silver fawn, and apricot with a black mask, didn’t really develop into its present form until about 1880. This modern mastiff then almost went extinct and had to be revived using bullmastiff and St. Bernard blood.
These original mastiffs were commonly kept as guard dogs. In a city like London, a fierce guardian mastiff would have been a great asset for a home or business establishment.
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I would be inclined to think that the Mastiff originally being white would also be related to livestock guardian types, who are also often white.
It would be interesting to consider how much a given color was “preferred” in a given breed was function related. It would be a distinct plus to be able to identify a “herding dog” vice a “guardian dog” (and I know that sheep distinguish color. Once one had white sheep, white guardian dogs tended to be preferred and the herding breeds tended to be dark colored).
Given the “matin” and other types of “mastiff type” dogs in Europe, it’s surprising that resort was made to bloodhound. Use of the bull mastiff would make sense given the bullmastiff was supposed to be derived from bulldog/mastiff. There being so many “just so” stories on creation or recreation of various breeds, what does the DNA say?
Peggy Richter.
[…] in those days were often parti-colored or even predominantly white, a trait that is worth examining again at another point in this […]
[…] Offbeat Stories of the Day – March 24th 2012Tips For Making Your Home Garden Pollinator Friendly“The Mastiff” by Abraham Hondius (1677) // swfobject.registerObject("wpFollowmeFlash", "9.0.0"); .getflash { font-size:8px; } […]