Griffon Bruxellois"Origins"

The origin of the Griffon Bruxellois is wrapped in mystery! There are two schools of thought , the one claiming ancient lineage for the breed, the other maintaining that it is entirely a hybrid, of recent date. Of the latter school, some favour a mixture of this breed and that, others of that breed and this, and though tilll lately it has been said that the breed was not know before 1880, there is now definitive proof of its existence ten years earlier.
The "ancient lineage" school brings forward as evidence to substantiate the claim, the famous portrait in the National gallery, "The Marriage of Giovanni Arnolfini and Giovanna Cenami" by Jan van Eyck, dated 1434. There is in this, a small red brindled dog which, though it does not much resemble the modern Griffon (save for the "monkey face" expresion) was said by that great authority on the breed, the late Sir Howard Handley Spicer, to be very like the earliest importations from Belgium. In particular, he said, there was a great resemblance between this dog and Ch Mousequetaire Roug, the second British Champion. Another pillar of the breed in the early 1900´s, a dog called Sparklets, though not mentioned by Sir Howard, also appears from photographs to be very like the van Eyck dog.
The Arnolfini portrait is recognised on the continent as being one of an early Griffon. It is reproduced in a book, published in Holland (De Hond Staat Model, by Dr. A.N. Zadoks, Josephus Jitta and Cago v.d. Meulen) which consists of pictures of dogs of many breeds taken from works of art in the galleries of Europe and Great Britain. The authors told the present writer that it was always taken for granted that the dog in the portrait was a Griffon, and that they had not hesitated to include it as such.
As well as the van Eyck portrait, Sir Howard also mentions another painting, in the sixteenth century, by Jacopo du Empoli. This portrays a dwarf employed by Henri III of France, with a number of that monarch´s pets, among which there are several small dogs of distinct Griffon character.
In this article on the history of the breed, published in Our Dogs about 1919, Sir Howard inclines to the theory that the breed is a very old one, but he also mentions the other claims. He points out that name "Griffon" was applied to any rough coated dog, and that when used without any other qualification, it merely meant rough or wiry. He goes on to say that the theory most commonly advanced by both British and Continental breeders, was that the breed was formed by crossing and re-crossing the Toy Pinscher, the Pug and the Toy Spaniel.
It is agreed by all authorities that the Pug and the Toy Spaniel were extensively used, but not for some time after the breed was recognised, so that there is still some doubt as to the origin of the nineteenth century foundation stock. The only other person to mention the Pinscher cross was Mr. Will Hally.
In an article published in 1918, which he has kindly given me permission to quote, Mr. Hally says: " Quite glaringly, the Griffon is very closely related to the little Affenpinscher which a few of us youthful enthusiasts used to import from Germany in the days before the quarantine laws... The early importations of Griffons show Affenpinscher and Toy Spaniel parentage very decidedly" He continues: One or two British writers have classed the Griffon among Terriers, and in spirit as well as in some characteristics, it clearly is a Terrier. At the same time I emphatically disagree with those who hold that the Irish Terrier and the Yorkshire Terrier had any part in the Griffon make up. In my boyhood, I knew exactly what breeds went to the manufacture of several at least of the continental stud, and all Terrier characteristic in the Griffon are derived from the Affenpinscher and the Toy Pinscher".
So much for British writers on the breed. Now we come to the Belgian authority, Mlle. Warzée.
A short history of the Griffon in Belgium, by Mlle Warzée was published in L´Eleveur and translated in Our Dogs in 1934. In this she traces the history from 1880 and, as a special point of interest in view of Mr. Hally´s remarks, she gives chapter and verse for a Yorkshire Terrier cross. This cross seems in my view, to be a very likely one as it would account for the small size, and for the silky top-knot, which was so prevalent in the early days and which still persists.
Mlle. Warzée writes: "In those days (1880) the Griffon existed without any definite standard; it had the appearance of a little terrier, semi-Barbet, semi-Griffon". She explains Barbet as being the old Water Spaniel, but, as Griffons were said not to exist by name at that time, the description is not very clear. She adds, however, that "the muzzle was pointed, elongated, the coat less wiry, the tuft on the head sylky. I was multi-coloured, with sometimes white on the head and legs". "In the 1880´s, Mlle Warzée continues, " a dog of this type was made BIS at a show on the Field of Manoevres, near Brussels, and this dog was purchased by an Englishman, Mr. Marchison, and exported to England". The dog had created quite a sensation at the show, and from then on many Belgian breeders tried to obtain these small dogs. By crossing them with other breeds, a recognizable type was eventually produced.
Sifting these various theories, I have been able to evolve a theory of my own, which is, that in fact all the theories really agree. That there has always existed a breed of a small rough-haired dogs, as early as the fifteenth century or before, and that those were the forerunners of the Affenpinscher. And that it was the Affenpinscher, which was being kept in the back streets of Brussels in the mid-nineteenth century, from which sprang the winner of 1880, and which, crossed later with the various other breeds mentioned, eventually produced the Griffon Bruxellois.
One further point of interest about the date when the first Griffon was recognised by name. Mlle Warzée mentions 1880 but the breed must have existed by name at least ten years earlier. There appeared a few years ago in Country Life, a reproduction of a painting by Renoir which now is hangs in the Sao Paulo Museum of Art in Brazil. It is entitled, "La Baigneuse au Griffon" and date is 1870. The dog in question is quite unmistakably a Griffon, black-and-tan, very small and lying in a most typical Griffon attitude. It has cropped ears and an undocked tail, otherwise it might be a modern dog. Just how Renoir´s "Baigneuse" came to be possessed of a Griffon ten years before the breed was said to exist, will remain forever a mystery, but the discovery of this picture certainly bears out the theory that the breed was in fact far older than the early Belgian breeders imagined