RARE! Royal Doulton Transferware Plate Staffordshire Bull Terrier Jock of the Bushveld

$149.99

Brand Royal Doulton

 For consideration is this rare, wonderful Transferware Collector Plate by Royal Doulton depicting Jock, the famous Staffordshire Bull Terrier, his owner and other men around a campfire.  Jock was a real dog that lived in the 1880's and traveled with his owner James Percy FitzPatrick when he worked as a storeman, prospector's assistant, journalist and ox-wagon transport-rider in the Bushveld region of Transvaii (South Africa). 

Not long into his career as a transport rider, one of FitzPatrick's companion's dogs had a litter of puppies. She was a well-respected bull terrier trail dog, though somewhat unattractive, and she had been covered by a pedigree Staffordshire Bull Terrier. Five of her six pups were the epitome of their breeding. They were strong, fat and had good colouring. However, one of them was a runt. He was weedy, ill-proportioned and was the victim of constant sibling attack. Since the runt had not been spoken for, Percy slowly came upon the idea of taking him on as his own.   However, right at the last moment Percy was offered the pick of the litter and after a night of contemplation, he decided to stick with the little weakling, thus saving him from being drowned in a bucket for being the runt of the litter as he'd have ruined the litter had he been kept with it.  He called him Jock and it seemed as if the puppy knew that FitzPatrick was his master from day one. He even followed him home without any coaching. Jock was very loyal towards Percy, and a brave companion.

FitzPatrick would later recount these adventures he shared with Jock as bedtime stories to his children.  A good friend of FitzPatrick's, Rudyard Kipling, also took part in these story-telling evenings and at some point Kipling and the children persuaded FitzPatrick to gather them into a book.  Jock of the Bushveld was published in 1907 becoming an instant success; a classic being reprinted four times in that year alone and one  that has since never gone out of print. 

 Read more about Jock at my blog: http://nancysdailydish.blogspot.com/2015/08/jock-of-bushveld-transferware-plate.html

Hand Painted with greens, blues, reds, gray, gold and brown  

Measures 10"

Condition:  Excellent, there are no chips, cracks, little if any crazing.  Rare to find this plate and especially in this condition!