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Breed HistoryAlthough notations to Griffon history can be found which date back to 1545, development of the current day Korthals Griffon (Wirehaired Pointing Griffon) began in earnest in the Netherlands in 1873 by a young Dutch sportsman and avid hunter by the name of Eduard Karel Korthals.
Born on November 16,1851 in Amsterdam, he was the son of a rich ship owner who had an unquestionable interest for breeding, so much so that he supported the newborn passion of his son for hunting and dogs, passion that was overriding his taste for business. The young Eduard Korthals preferred to raise dogs and to hunt wildfowl, than to join the paternal company. In 1873, at the age of 22, with the financial support of his father, he settled close to some friends in Hesse (Germany) a region abounding with game. Four years later, one of his friends, Prince of Solms-Braunfels, entrusts him with the management of his Bibesheim kennels, the most famous of all the Germany kennels, made up especially of English pointers, while enabling him to continue to simultaneously breed Griffons. Korthals was going to become one of the largest stockbreeders, proud of his selection work. He began with 7 Griffons of any type , wire-haired , woolly hair, and a German half-bred with a short hair pointer . The 7 patriarchs of Griffons were: Banco, Hector, Janus, Satan, Donna, Junon and Mouche. To arrive in less than 20 years, to a specific breed of Korthals Griffon (wirehaired pointing Griffon), Eduard carried out breeding in very narrow consanguinity and was devoted to a pitiless selection, out of 600 dogs, he kept only 62 and made them work in woods, in the marshes, in plains to develop a, hardy, all-terrain close-working hunting dog and all the time trusting them on all kinds of game. In the creation of the Korthals Griffon Eduard Korthals didn’t use any English blood (pointer), because after having tried it he found out that such a crossing made the Griffon lose some of its true characteristics. With its method of consanguinity, selection and drive the Korthals Griffons were of such quality that they astounded the specialists in Germany, in Belgium, in the Netherlands, in France and a everywhere in Europe where the Korthals was seen hunting with such width and the speed they hunt and their good sense of smell and their versatility. On November 15, 1887, through the in the instructions of a commission of 16 stockbreeders chaired by Prince of Solm-Braunfels, E.K.KORTHALS wrote the standard of Korthals Griffon (wirehaired pointing Griffons); it has never been modified ever since. On July 29,1888, the first international Griffon club was chartered in Mainz,
by Messrs.Korthals, Winkler, and Voelsing. This was followed shortly thereafter by speciality clubs in individual countries; the Royal Belgium Griffon Club in 1895, France’s Club Fancais du Griffon d’Arret aPoil Dur Korthals in 1901, the Dutch Club De Nederlandse Griffon Club in 1911, then The Griffon Club of America in1916. Eduard Karel Korthals continued to develop the breed until his death on July 4, 1896 at the young age of 44 , he died of cancer of the larynx in the Bibeishem kennels in Germany. His ideas had sufficiently made followers to survive him and his friends the Baron of GinGins (Switzerland), Charles Prudommeaux (France) and Mr Leliman (Netherlands) continued his invaluable work the improvement of the Korthals Griffon (Wirehaired Pointing Griffon) and his diffusion through all of Europe and even in North America. Developmental TimelineThe development of the Korthals Griffon breed is summarised below; 1851 1867 1870-1871 1873 1874-1877 1875 1877-1879 1879 1882 1885 1887 1888 1895 1896 1901 1911 1916 1917 1935 1939-1945 1951 1980’s 1991 2002 2003 2004 |
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Jamie Kuhn, Owner W5378 Bieneck Road Neillsville, WI 54456 |
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Eduard Karel Korthals