Some
years ago when I still did the "Finds of the week" posts, I had some
called "I'm a collector" in which I shared vintage items.
Over
time my collections have mostly stopped growing due to different
reasons, but they are still there and still loved. I also have vintage
items, some inherited, some gifts, some from fleamarkets, some more
interesting than others.
So I thought it could be fun to share some of them every, now and then and tell their story.
As you know, I'm a cat person. I love dogs, but like to say that I would be a better dog aunt than dog mom. On the other hand, I'm a fantastic cat mom (ignore Gundel and den Dekan laughing their furry little butts off in the back).
Nevertheless, I have a lot more Steiff dogs than cats. Just as real dog breeds look much more differently from one another than cat breeds, Steiff made a lot more different dogs than cats, possibly for just that reason.
One of them is Chinook.
Have you ever heard of Chinook who gave his name to a whole breed which has been the official state dog of New Hampshire since 2009?
Chinook's story, however, already began over 100 years ago, with Arthur Treadwell Walden of the Wonalancet Farm and Inn. Walden had worked in the Klondike during the gold rush, delivering supplies and mail, and thus gained experience with sled dogs. There he met a Native American guide and his dog named Chinook.
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| Walden and Chinook (public domain via Wikimedia Commons) |
After his experience in the Klondike, Walden decided to breed sled dogs himself, strong but also fast.
In 1917, three pups were born to a Greenland Husky - a descendant of Admiral Peary's lead dog for his North Pole expedition, Polaris - and a Mastiff/St. Bernard-type mix. Walden's wife called them Rikki, Tikki, and Tavi, after the Jungle Book, but eventually Rikki was renamed in honor of the original Chinook.
He was a "sport of nature" meaning he didn't resemble either of his parents - traits he passed on to his own descendants. Also he was not only an outstanding sled dog, but also a very gentle one.
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| Mountan Laurel Ajax (by Muu-karhu on Wikipedia, free use) |
In 1927, Admiral Richard Byrd chose Walden to run the dog teams (half of which were Chinook's descendants) during his first Antarctic Expedition (1928 - 1930).
Walden accepted only after being guaranteed that no dogs would be shot to save supplies.
In January 1929, Chinook disappeared from the camp and never returned (if you are ready for some tissue work, have a look at the newspaper article from 1930 on the blog you find under 1. in my sources).
His legacy, however, lived on in the rare dog breed called Chinook.
When Walden returned from the Antarctic, he found part of his farm had been sold due to his wife being ill, and he also sold his dogs to another breeder, but still had an influence on the breed.
If you are interested in more history, please check my sources towards the end of the post.
Now to my own Chinook.
When we first saw the Steiff Chinook in the Cieslik book, it was love at first sight. Over the years we were lucky enough to find two of them, both lying down, so we both got one when we split up. Otherwise I might have had to fight for him ;-)
Steiff's Chinook came in three versions and different sizes, lying down, standing, and sitting (the last one without or with a neck mechanism moving the head if you turned the tail). The one with the neck mechanism is the rarest with 257 items, but "Chinook - Byrd's Antarctic Expedition Dog" (that's what the tag says) is generally almost as rare as the real breed.
According to the Cieslik book, only 2,493 were made between 1930 and 1931. However, they captioned a picture of what looks like Walden with Chinook to me with the name Byrd, and according to Steiffgal's blog, the production time was between 1930 and 1932. Both agree on them being rare, though.
Here's my own Chinook who is usually in my dog cabinet, surrounded by other wonderful Steiff dogs.
So his wool plush is not as vibrant in color anymore, his harness is gone, and his collar is very worn, but isn't he gorgeous, anyway?
I love his face so much.
You can only wish to look as good at more than 90 years old. Imagine what that would be in dog years!
Sources:
1. Heather Wilkinson Rojo: "Chinook's Great Adventure at the South Pole" in "Nutfield Genealogy", posted May 21, 2020 (there are several posts about Chinooks on this blog)
2. Arthur Treadwell Walden on Wikipedia
3. Chinook Owners Assocation: History (with a lot of historic pictures)
4. Chinook Club of America Inc: Chinook History (also with historic pictures)
5. Jürgen and Marianne Cieslik: Knopf im Ohr. Jülich, Cieslik, 1989
6. My Steiff Life (Steiffgal's blog)
And here's a little extra (I would recommend to turn the music off, but that's just my personal opinion).