Black Pomeranian, 1881

Black Pomeranian from Vero Shaw's The Illustrated Book of Dog, 1881.

The pomeranian is a Spitz type dog named after the Pomerania region in Central Europe. Classified as a toy dog, it weighs between four to seven and a half pounds and stands five to eleven inches high, on average. It has a thick double coat and the top coat forms a ruff along the neck and back. Pomeranians have the most diverse coat color range of any breed, with the most common being orange, black, and white, or cream. In general they are a very healthy dog and have an average lifespan of twelve to sixteen years. Queen Victoria had a small red pomeranian which popularized the smaller varieties of the breed. They are still among the most popular chosen by dog owners today. 

The Illustrated Dog was published by Cassell, Petter, Galpin, & Co. It had twenty-eight colored lithographs and numerous engravings. It was the first work to contain color illustrations of several breeds, including the fox terrier, pug, and retriever. John Cassell (1817-1865) founded the company in 1848 and it underwent a number of changes. Printers Thomas Dixon Galpin (1828-1910) and George william Petter (1823-1888) operated the company under the name Petter and Galpin from 1855-8 after Cassell went bankrupt. He rejoined as a partner in 1858, when his name was re-added to the company, and the "& Co." was added in 1878 when Robert Turner joined the publishing house.