A Short History of Dalmatians
Offered for amusement; a “history” speculation on the earliest history and "evolution?" of Dalmatians, vaguely recalled from bits and pieces on the Web last year, about as follows:
Archeology sculptures dated to many thousands of years ago showed images of spotted dogs. The earliest documents were said to be dated to about the Middle Ages [?] 1300s, and associated with the Balkan kingdoms and chiefdoms. Manuscripts and text described certain kinds of spotted dogs as hunters, sometimes in company with horsemen but also maybe “ordinary” people. A peculiarity was an illustration of a spotted dog chasing a weasel (ermine.)
College courses about art of the Middle Ages, etc (as recalled) usually claimed that artists very often used their work to present pictorially a message, such as the virtues of the Saints and the aristocracy. Anyone who was fond of Dalmatians might have noticed the resemblance of the ermine capes in paintings of ancient kings and queens to the coats of Dalmatians. But it happened that geographically, the kingdoms etc. of the Balkans were South of the latitudes where ermine existed to be hunted and made into incredibly expensive Royal garments (each cape or cloak requiring hundreds of weasel coats all matched for color and size and tanned to perfection!)
According to published work of the Nobel Prize winning ethologist, Konrad Lorenz, it would likely have been “automatic” for the Royalty and Aristocrats of the Balkans to prize (and pay lots for) hunting dogs that signified instantly by their ermine-like flashy coats that their owners were rich, royalty and aristocracy. (Perhaps the petty kings couldn't afford ermine for daily wear to impress the peasants, but perhaps for many rulers more impressively they jolly well could own lots of yards of “ermine” coats on the backs of their dogs! Even today it is easy to imagine what a remarkable sight it must have been to see a pack of maybe thirty or forty Dalmatians dashing after foxes and hares or stags and boars across fields or along roads with royal huntsman following them.
Rather obviously in the days when all animals were candidates for becoming coats, gloves, purses, and other garments, it was (per K Lorenz) nearly a certainty that minor aristocrats and trades-people who couldn't afford real ermine instead wore fake-ermine capes and coats made of Dalmatian. Somebody speculated on the Web that certain religious garments known from history were named after Dalmatians (because dogs were a Church religious symbol even today in Eastern Europe of “dogged” obedience and loyalty, etc), and at one time maybe were even made of tanned Dalmatian coats[?]
Of course, it’s probably believable that Royal Dalmatian hunting ermine-dogs would almost certainly impress the visiting English minor aristocrats and business-like entrepreneurial envious eyes of visiting English tradespeople and merchants (who maybe instantly imagined the market at home in England for “ermine-coated royal hunting dogs?)
According to Western Europe manuscripts and later on newspapers, some rich people and royalty enjoyed hunting with Dalmatians, and we suspect a few unfortunate or elderly dogs contributed to fashionable apparel of the middle and lower classes. When hunting with horses across industrial England was no longer quite so popular among the rich, horse-drawn carriages were coming into wide use on cobbled roads. Logically, packs of Dalmatian were for business-like royalty much less expensive for protecting the coaches and wagons from petty thieves and peasants than dashing about the country on business (or fun) with a squadron of guys on horseback pretending the be the 18 Musketeers (or the Cavalier equivalents?) Much later when the coaches vanished from the highways and low-roads, and railroads or barges were used instead, under-employed Dalmatians found work with Fire Departments and similar marginal occupations. In the modern era, under the auspices of the novae-riche Western Europe industrialists imitating ancient royalty, the packs of Dalmatians again became a prestige symbol. And within the recent 50 years, Dalmatians as individuals became loved members in the domestic homes of many US “ordinary” families and in other countries.
History books seem never to have described Dalmatians as bred and used for fighting dogs nor as mastiff-style “Guard-dogs.” Nor (until historically recent days) seemingly were they bred and employed as companions for their owners, excepting among the peasantry where breed purity might have lasted a single summer. Further, no history books are known (to us) to document any detectably significant frequency of deafness or uric acid problems until the most modern 50 years of intensive inbreeding.
***
As far as I remember, this was a fair synthesis of Web bits about Dalmatians. It seems consistent with the genetics and modern Dalmatian history posted on the Web recently. So far as I know this “collection” version is unique.
- Hans Eisenhosen, et al, May 2011
Archeology sculptures dated to many thousands of years ago showed images of spotted dogs. The earliest documents were said to be dated to about the Middle Ages [?] 1300s, and associated with the Balkan kingdoms and chiefdoms. Manuscripts and text described certain kinds of spotted dogs as hunters, sometimes in company with horsemen but also maybe “ordinary” people. A peculiarity was an illustration of a spotted dog chasing a weasel (ermine.)
College courses about art of the Middle Ages, etc (as recalled) usually claimed that artists very often used their work to present pictorially a message, such as the virtues of the Saints and the aristocracy. Anyone who was fond of Dalmatians might have noticed the resemblance of the ermine capes in paintings of ancient kings and queens to the coats of Dalmatians. But it happened that geographically, the kingdoms etc. of the Balkans were South of the latitudes where ermine existed to be hunted and made into incredibly expensive Royal garments (each cape or cloak requiring hundreds of weasel coats all matched for color and size and tanned to perfection!)
According to published work of the Nobel Prize winning ethologist, Konrad Lorenz, it would likely have been “automatic” for the Royalty and Aristocrats of the Balkans to prize (and pay lots for) hunting dogs that signified instantly by their ermine-like flashy coats that their owners were rich, royalty and aristocracy. (Perhaps the petty kings couldn't afford ermine for daily wear to impress the peasants, but perhaps for many rulers more impressively they jolly well could own lots of yards of “ermine” coats on the backs of their dogs! Even today it is easy to imagine what a remarkable sight it must have been to see a pack of maybe thirty or forty Dalmatians dashing after foxes and hares or stags and boars across fields or along roads with royal huntsman following them.
Rather obviously in the days when all animals were candidates for becoming coats, gloves, purses, and other garments, it was (per K Lorenz) nearly a certainty that minor aristocrats and trades-people who couldn't afford real ermine instead wore fake-ermine capes and coats made of Dalmatian. Somebody speculated on the Web that certain religious garments known from history were named after Dalmatians (because dogs were a Church religious symbol even today in Eastern Europe of “dogged” obedience and loyalty, etc), and at one time maybe were even made of tanned Dalmatian coats[?]
Of course, it’s probably believable that Royal Dalmatian hunting ermine-dogs would almost certainly impress the visiting English minor aristocrats and business-like entrepreneurial envious eyes of visiting English tradespeople and merchants (who maybe instantly imagined the market at home in England for “ermine-coated royal hunting dogs?)
According to Western Europe manuscripts and later on newspapers, some rich people and royalty enjoyed hunting with Dalmatians, and we suspect a few unfortunate or elderly dogs contributed to fashionable apparel of the middle and lower classes. When hunting with horses across industrial England was no longer quite so popular among the rich, horse-drawn carriages were coming into wide use on cobbled roads. Logically, packs of Dalmatian were for business-like royalty much less expensive for protecting the coaches and wagons from petty thieves and peasants than dashing about the country on business (or fun) with a squadron of guys on horseback pretending the be the 18 Musketeers (or the Cavalier equivalents?) Much later when the coaches vanished from the highways and low-roads, and railroads or barges were used instead, under-employed Dalmatians found work with Fire Departments and similar marginal occupations. In the modern era, under the auspices of the novae-riche Western Europe industrialists imitating ancient royalty, the packs of Dalmatians again became a prestige symbol. And within the recent 50 years, Dalmatians as individuals became loved members in the domestic homes of many US “ordinary” families and in other countries.
History books seem never to have described Dalmatians as bred and used for fighting dogs nor as mastiff-style “Guard-dogs.” Nor (until historically recent days) seemingly were they bred and employed as companions for their owners, excepting among the peasantry where breed purity might have lasted a single summer. Further, no history books are known (to us) to document any detectably significant frequency of deafness or uric acid problems until the most modern 50 years of intensive inbreeding.
***
As far as I remember, this was a fair synthesis of Web bits about Dalmatians. It seems consistent with the genetics and modern Dalmatian history posted on the Web recently. So far as I know this “collection” version is unique.
- Hans Eisenhosen, et al, May 2011