Noble Hounds and Dear Companions The Royal Photograph Collection

Among the many treasures of the Royal Photograph Collection at Windsor is a handsome album entitled The Property of the Queen Photographs of Dogs in the Royal Kennel, Windsor. It is perhaps the earliest official record of the Royal Family and their many canine companions from Queen Victorias beloved confidante, her spaniel, Dash, to Prince Alberts elegant greyhounds; from Edward VII and his charming if disreputable fox-terrier, Caesar, to Queen Alexandra and her collection of exotic toy-dogs. Taking the album as its starting point, this book records over a century of royal pets, immortalised with owners and without, in photographs that range from the serene to the ridiculous. Paintings and works of art from the Royal Collection complete the story or stories, in some cases the creation of Landseers famous painting Dignity and Impudence, the arrival of the first Pekinese in England, and Caesars finest hour, as a masterpiece from the workshop of Carl Fabergé.