I came across a photograph of a Victorian Dog Collar recently that I could not get out of my mind.
The studded Dog Collar featured a decorative, brass nameplate with flowers surrounding what looked to me to be a Saint Bernard.
Antique Dog Collar. Image: Hap Moore
The Saint Bernard held an unrolled scroll in its mouth; the perfect place to engrave a Dog’s name and information.
It was a very large, fine Dog Collar and I could not get the design out of my mind.
Something seemed very familiar to me. I was having a case of Dog Collar déjà vu…
I just knew I had seen the design before, but couldn’t quite place where, so I started flipping through my binders of research on antique Dog Collars.
Sure enough, in a Chapman Manufacturing Company advertisement I spotted the collar.
Vintage Dog Collar advertisements can help date Dog Collars, and this ad was from 1891.
Of course, while the ad can’t give you the exact date that a Dog Collar was made, it can give you a good idea.
You’ll find additional Vintage Dog Collar ads, here.
With this Dog Collar ad, I know that the Dog Collar was made by the Chapman Manufacturing Company around 1891 in Meriden, Connecticut.
As I’ve mentioned before that I always wonder about the life of the Dog that wore the collar.
If we take another look at the nameplate, the Dog’s name was Major and he belonged to F. Jones in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
The Dog’s owner was easy to find…
Mr. F. Jones, it turns out, was Frank Jones.
Frank Jones (1832-1902) was a brewer, merchant, Mayor and Congressman from Portsmouth, New Hampshire in the nineteenth century.
He built a mansion on 1000 acres in Portsmouth, New Hampshire that he named Maplewood Farm.
Maplewood is still standing today on the corner of Woodbury and Maplewood Avenues, but sadly Frank Jones’ beloved home is now used as an apartment building, his acreage long since sold.
I located photographs of Maplewood, circa 1890 at the Portsmouth Anthenaeum. Women & men can be seen playing with Dogs on the grounds of Frank Jone’s Mansion.
Who are the well dressed women whose names are lost to history? Their manner of dress suggests that they were not hired help.
The unidentified photo album from the Portsmouth Anthenaeum’s historical collection is photographic evidence of the Dogs of Frank Jones’ Maplewood.
The friendly Saint Bernards seem right a home in the photographs.
An article, giving the results of the Auction where Major’s Dog Collar was sold, claimed the studded Dog collar belonged to:
”Major, a German Shepherd.”
The standardization of the German Shepherd as a breed did not begin until 1899 in Germany. The first German Shepherd to be shown in the US was in 1907.
I do not think Major was a German Shepherd.
The largest Saint Bernard below appears to have the studded Dog Collar around his neck…
Could the Saint Bernard be Major?
I’ll never know, but Major’s Dog Collar sold for $336 at the Hap Moore Auction held on May 31, 2008.
Antiques & The Arts reported on the auction and had this to say about Major’s Dog Collar:
“The Dog came to an untimely end after it killed a neighbor’s sheep and the neighbor shot him. The neighbor hung the Dog’s collar from his barn and it was retrieved only after the deaths of the contenders.”
Antique Dog Collar. Image: Hap Moore
Poor Major’s Dog Collar hung like a trophy in a neighbor’s barn, quite possibly for over one hundred years.
For the first time, I’m glad I did not have the winning bid.
Later, I’ve got to let the Dog out,
Taffy, our charming 
