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(Kennel/Breeder History UK -
Brantwod)(Author - S.Tillotson, first pubished in the
1995 UK Afghan Hound Year Book)
In this series , originally written for the UK Afghan Hound Year Book, the intention is to focus on a particular Afghan who, whilst not a champion or great show specimen, proved to be influential in the development of the breed. During the research for this years article we frequently came across a small family of Afghans, who's influence on bloodlines is significant, Strangely the Kennel name remains fairly anonymous and their praises have largely gone unsung. We decided therefore to extend the scope beyond a single Afghan and to write about this Afghan family, albeit some 60 years late, and highlight their contribution. To put a perspective on this, one or more of this family appear in at least thirty of the pedigrees of English champions who gained their titles between 1947 and 1965. This family of Afghans are behind some of the most influential bloodlines in the US in the decade 1945 - 1955. They are behind the last significant English influences on American bloodlines prior to the emergence of the US homebred stars Shirkhan Of Grandeur and Crown Crest Mr Universe.
The names of this influential family of Afghans were - Hepzibah, Black Sampson, Corissa and Hobah Caleb. The breeders had no affix at the time of registration and this partially explains why this kennels name is still largely unrecognized. This anonymity was reinforced by the fact that Hepzibah was renamed Memsahib El Kabul (Dr Betsy Porter's affix) and Black Sampson was renamed Turkuman Bamboo (Juliette de Bairacli Levy's affix). Another twist to these renames occured in 1939 when Hobah Caleb was re-registered for export to the USA (to Willard G Drown MD, Ohio) at which time the "Brantwood" affix was added. The export was subsequently cancelled, reason unknown. Incidentally, in 1936 Mr. Drown imported Ghanistan Basra-Infantia who was in whelp to Sugriva Of Geufron and produced a litter of nine, registered with the AKC in 1937. We'll mention Mr. Drown again later on.
Ch Sirdar of Ghazni Ch Int Ch Badshah of Ainsdart Ku-mari of Kaf Ch Westmill Tamasar Omar of Geufron Ranee of Geufron Cupra Mem Sahib El Kabul (late Hephzibah) Ch Sirdar of Ghazni Ch Ashna of Ghazni Shireen of Ghazni Corissa Danenda of Ghazni Westmill Chaya Faida of Ghazni
As is now apparent, the name of this unsung kennel is "Brantwood", formed in the early 1930's by Miss Moss, her kennel partner Mr Hill joined a little later. Miss Moss started with Corissa (Ashna Of Ghazni x Westmill Chaya), pure Ghazni, bred by Mrs. Wood of Westmill Afghans in January 1931. (Several years later Corissa produced a litter by Firdausi Of Geufron and one of the offspring, Westmill Kugbar went to Mrs Woods Westmill kennels). Miss Moss acquired a second bitch, Morita (Firdausi Of Geuffron x Safiya), born January 1933, litter sister to Champions Chankidar and Chota Sahib, bred by Mrs Carlton. Incidentally Ghanistan Basra-Infantia was out of a repeat mating of the Morita litter. This connection presumably explains how the association between Mr. Drown and the Brantwoods began.
Back to Brantwood breeding - In October 1935 Miss Hill registered Black Sampson and Edrei (Westmill Tamasar x Morita) and also registered Hepzibah (Westmill Tamasar x Corissa). The two different Westmill Tamasar sired litters were bred ten days apart in February 1935. The name of the Brantwood "kennel maid" charged with rearing them was Juliette de Bairacli Levy of Turkuman fame. According to Miss Levy, in a letter written by her in 1995 to the Publisher of the Afghan Hound Year Book, all the previous Brantwood litters had died from Canine Distemper.
As an aside, In this era Distemper was a major problem in England and devastated many kennels stock. For example, Miss Semple (Pushtikuh Afghans) lost 21 out of 22 Afghans from consecutive litters due to Distemper. Medication and serum were in short supply and some breeders even used vacinne intended for "Ferrets" on their Afghans in an attempt to ward of the dreaded disease. In 1941 Miss Levy and Will Haly (both breed correspondents for "Our Dogs" at the time), engaged in quite a fierce argument in their breed column about the merits of Natural Rearing (Levy) vs immunization (Haly) for preventing Distemper. Miss Levy even quoted Mr. Drown MD, (that man again) quoting his expert that immunization had no effect whatsoever upon Distemper, whereas natural rearing did.
In reward for safely rearing the Brantwood litters (incidentally these were the first litters ever reared by Miss Levy using her Natural Rearing methods) , Miss Hill gave Miss Levy the dog Black Sampson (renamed as Turkuman Bamboo). Shortly after this Miss Levy, (starting with Brantwood stock), commenced her Turkuman breeding program as part of her research into natural rearing. Significantly, breeders who subscribed to her breeding terms had to use one of three stud dogs, one of which was T. Pomegranate, son of Brantwoods Black Sampson.
Ch Int Ch Badshah of Ainsdart Ch Westmill Tamasar Ranee of Geufron Turkuman Bamboo (late Black Sampson) Ch Firdausi of Geufron Morita Safiya Turkuman Pomegranate Westmill Azadulla Westmill Delawar Khan Ranee of Geufron Turkuman Lotus Blossom Ch Firdausi of Geufron Marie of Valdorern Jaldy Chukree
In 1977 Miss Levy celebrated 40 years in Afghans and placed an advertisement in one of the Dog annuals. We paraphrase her in order to illustrate the importance of Brantwood Black Sampsons bloodline - " Grandeur in the USA carried the Turkumans to fame when a grandson of Pomegranate (Ch Turkuman Nissims Laurel) won the Hound Group for the first time at the Westminster Show". Miss Levy then went on to list several important kennels in the UK and overseas that developed from her bloodlines.
We should be discussing Brantwood, but I can't resist one final word on Turkuman, indeed famous last words. "I am altogether giving up ownership of Afghan Hounds" and "although I am no longer an actual Afghan owner etc...", - taken from "Our Dogs" (UK) October 1941. Miss Levy had decided to move into Wolfhounds, but she couldn't leave Afghans and came back to them.
As mentioned earlier, Dr. Betsy Porter purchased Hepzibah and renamed her Mem Sahib El Kabul. Another detour - a litter mate of the now named "Mem Sahib" El Kabul was named Ne Hushta "Memsahib". Also, earlier in 1935 Mrs. Carlton bred a litter out of Westmill Tamasar x Chankidar and named a bitch "Memsahib". So at one time in 1935 three bitches, all sired by Westmill Tamasar all had "Memsahib" in their name, a headache for researchers.
Moving on, Mem Sahib El Kabul when mated with Rama El Kabul produced Sardar Khan El Kabul and Rani El Kabul - both exported to the USA during the war. Sardar produced nine champions and Rani produced five champions in her first litter. There's also a nice little story in Margaret Niblocks book about the sea journey across the Atlantic for further reading.
Corissa produced a litter sired by Garrymhor Ashraf which included the dog Mansharaf Pardessi who is grandsire to last years "Influential Afghan" Jalalabad Barwala Of Carloway. Therefore the Brantwood foundation bitch will appear in just about every Carloway Afghan ever bred. An influence reinforced by the existence of both Brantwood Black Sampson and Brantwood Hobah Caleb in the dam side of Zog Of Carloways pedigree. The influential existence of Brantwood in the Khorrassans via Pomegranate and Badakhshnan Of Valdorern is fact. The popularity of these two kennels which produced many litters and many significant stud dogs has ensured Brantwood lines are inherent in the majority of English pedigrees.
Its interesting to note that in the several Afghan Books I have studied, only two of them have mentioned Brantwood - those written by Doggie Hubbard and Margaret Niblock. Naturally enough Brantwood is acknowledged by Miss Snelling (Khorrassan) and Miss Levy in their Afghan Hound Year Book "Glimpes Into The Past", 1980, 1981 editions respectively.
In Europe, a particular achievement for Brantwood was the breeding by Eta Pauptit (Van de Oranje Manege - VDOM) kennels of a litter (the first "U" litter in 1948) sired by Badakshan Of Valdorern (whose grandparents included Brantwoods) ex Nouradin Of Valdorern exported to VDOM. There were very few instances of Miss Pauptit deviating from her almost pure Ghazni breeding policy, so this is a feather in the cap of Brantwood (and Mrs Clarke of Valdorern). Ursula VDOM went to Samindawar's (Ludwig Bauer) kennel for breeding , two offspring (Samindawar's Lucretia, S. Lesnaja) were then exported to Germany.
Another important breeding was a Kakashah Litter (Mrs Morris Cole) out of Abdin of Tzaharane (Mr Mrs Tziros) x Kakashah Khishna Of Kuranda (Rothwell Fielding). This litter has several lines back to the Brantwoods (Sampson, Hobah Caleb) via the Tzaharane and Netheroyd lines and even a line back to Corissa via Netheroyd Ansari. The striking fact about this litter is that three of them (Kakashah Larch Tree, Kakashah Tiger Lily and Am Ch Kaguli of Kakashah) were exported to the US. Larch Tree went to Sunny Shay's Grandeur Kennel and was a prolific stud, alongside the previously exported Turkuman Nissims Laurel. This was around 1955 and supports the earlier comment about these breedings being the last of the major English influences upon the American breed.
Ch Int Ch Badshah of Ainsdart Ch Westmill Tamasar Ranee of Geufron Edrei Ch Firdausi of Geufron Morita Safiya Brantwood Hobah Caleb Am Ch Tufan of Ainsdart Mukhlis Saramad Naulika of Ghazni Jani Kala Lakki Marwat Illima of Geufron Ch Sirfreda
Of the estimated 1800 Afghans that make up the UK Champions Pedigrees, only one of them carries the Brantwood affix (Hobah Caleb) although six others exist in the champions records. We hope this insight into Brantwood and mention of several famous dogs descended from their lines has helped put them on the map as a kennel of note.
Steve Tillotson January 1996
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