| Born
on November 16, 1851 in Amsterdam, he is the son of a rich ship-owner
who had an unquestionable interest for
breeding, so much so that he supported the newborn passion of hisson
for hunting and dogs, passion that was
overriding his taste for business.
The young Eduard Karel Korthals preferred to raise dogs
and to hunt wildfowl, than to join the paternal company.
In 1873, at age 22, with the financial support of his father, he
settled close to some friends in Hesse (Germany)
a regon abounding with game. Four years later, one of his friends,
Prince of Solms-Braunfels, entrusts him with
the management of his Bibesheim kennel, the most famous of Germany,
made up especially of English pointers,
while enabling him to continue to simultaneously breed griffons.
Orca Celtick searching for American Woodcock
& Ruffed Grouse
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, barbet and
a German half-bred with short hair.
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 wire-haired pointing
griffon, Korthals carried out coupling
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 marsh, in plains, by all time, trusting
them on all kinds of game.
In the creation of the wire-haired pointing griffon,
Korthals did not use any English blood (pointer),
because after having tried it, he found out that such a crossing
made the pointing 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 little everywhere in Europe, as much by
the width and the speed of their search than by the smoothness of
their sense of smell and that of their versatility.
Ranger Catamount searching for American Woodcock
& Ruffed Grouse
On November 15, 1887, through the instructions of a Commission
of 16 stockbreeders chaired by Prince
of Solm-Braunfels, E.K.Korthals wrote the standard of Wire-haired
pointing griffons; it has never been modified
ever since.The following year, he created a Griffon Club bringing
together griffon lovers from various countries
and until his death in 1896, he was devoted to the improvement and
the diffusion of the wire-haired pointing griffon.
He died of cancer of the larynx on July 4, 1896 in the Bibeishem
kennel.
Bobcat Celtick searching for American Woodcock
& Ruffed Grouse
His ideas had sufficiently made followers to survive
him and his friends the Baron of GinGins (Switzerland),
Charles Prudommeaux (France) and Mr. Leliman (Holland) continued
his invaluable work, the improvement
of the wire-haired pointing griffon and his diffusion through all
of Europe and even in North America.
On the occasion of his fiftieth
anniversary, on June 8, 1951, the French club of the wire-haired
pointing griffon
decided to associate the name of Korthals with the designation of
the race to perpetuate the memory of its creator ;
cheers and thank you for the leaders of the French Club of the time.
When
I write this text in the summer of 2000, it was for my first
website
I sent it to Mr. Jacques Carpentier in France a Griffonnier
friend to me
to correct the text and his response was:
"Bravo Asbed for this text,
everything is well written I do nothing to correct"
Asbed Iskedjian |
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