Natural History

Posted in golden retriever, golden retriever history, working retrievers | Tagged golden retriever, Vesta of Woolley, working golden retriever | 4 Comments

4 Responses

1. on December 29, 2013 at 9:46 pm M.R.S.

   Vesta of Woolley (whelped 1927) should not be confused with her younger sister, Veta of Woolley (1928). Vesta was a champion In England; Veta came to USA and became an American champion.

   Ward Binks also painted a number of dogs belonging to Mrs Geraldine Rockefeller Dodge of Giralda kennels in New Jersey. Both Mrs Dodge and Mrs Cottingham were very wealthy ladies, and had the wherewithal and the staff to maintain excellent large kennels. However, Mrs. Cottingham dissolved her kennel and left England at the beginning of WWII, while Mrs. Dodge was active into the early 1960s.

   
   
   • on December 30, 2013 at 8:58 am Jan

     Geraldine Rockefeller Dodge lived in Madison, NJ. She loved animals. She had two private herds of deer. Residents claim one herd was albino and I have seen a white deer while running on the trails that now go through her estate land. She was instrumental in helping with the seeing eye dogs in Morristown, next door. There is a St. Hubert’s Giralda Animal shelter and training school erected on her land. I have attended many classes with my dogs there.

     
     
2. on December 30, 2013 at 9:00 am Jan

   Very beautiful painting. A really good find!

   
   
3. on December 30, 2013 at 12:56 pm M.R.S.

   A few years ago one of Binks’s paintings, group of four head studies of Woolley Goldens, was up at auction in New York. It went for quite a bit over the estimate (almost double, if i remember correctly) to an undisclosed bidder. Like the painting above, it was done in gouache (opaque watercolor), which was commonly used by Binks. He also did some lovely depictions of Labradors, many of them famous names.

   
   

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