I think it might be a good time to educate those who think that all pointers should come with nothing but the two-toned variety (i.e., liver-and-white, black-and-white, etc.,) Our standard calls for (in color):"Liver, lemon, black, orange; either in combination with white or solid-colored. A good pointer cannot be a bad color," It would be a shame to lose entirely the solid color pointer as they have been in existence longer than the "with white" colors.

In "The Observer's Book of Dogs" by Clifford L.B. Hubbard, 1945, there is separate reference to the Black Pointer, known then as the Arkwright Pointer, "This variety takes its name after the late Mr. William Arkwright, who, in the 1890's, maintained a fine kennel of all-black Pointers. They were not the type that would find favor on the Show Bench of today, being dish-faced, with slightly too-pronounced stops and hare feet; but most certainly his dogs were excellent workers in the field. Some all-black Pointers which are descendants of Arkwright's strain are still occasionally seen."

Note: It has been said, that William Arkwright took his Pointers from England and immigrated to Scandinavia to keep his strain pure. As the English were using more and more Foxhounds and Greyhounds to develop their Pointer. Some of this is evident by the dogs seen in Norway and Sweden today. Many solids with lovely heads and tails, smaller in stature than the English Pointer, along with a darker strain of orange & white that nearly resembles "chestnut", black and white and orange and white. Rarely have I seen lemon & white and liver & white in the Scandinavian dogs. I attribute this to the fact that the liver and lemon are recessive colors and brought into the breed when the crosses with Foxhounds and Greyhounds occurred.

William Arkwright was quite a fancier of the solid black pointer and has much of interest to say of them of which I will quote, "At the death of the second Duke Of Kingston (1773) his celebrated breed of black pointers, considered superior to all in the kingdom " were sold for immense sums," Northumberland, England was represented by the wonderful black pointers belonging to Admiral Metford (1781-1870), also Mr. W.R. Pape of Newcastle-On-Tyne had excellent black pointers of which he was most chary of parting with. Mr. Pape writes (on Feb 12, 1894): "It is now about forty years since I started to breed my black pointers and have had them ever since. I got a black bitch from Admiral Mitford, who had then a kennel of those pointers, which had a great name in this country. (England), She was a perfect wonder in the field, so that I at last wished to get some pups to oblige my sporting friends, I was told that in Spain they had the black breed, and a friend of mine got a dog for me there. I had him 14 or 15 years and his son, a dog from this pair was a grand dog. I shot over him and gave him to General York, in America who shot over him three Years longer and his letters all say that he never saw such a dog on any game, and the General was a great dogman. I sent three young dogs out to America a few years ago. They were broken there and all three took first prize at field trials."

There were many breeders of the solids in the 1700's and 1800'S in England, among them Mr, James Graham at Auchray Lodge who preserved the "purity" of the breed in a most careful way, as they were considered the ne plus ultra of pointers. Mr. John Gordon, Esq, an eminent sportsman near Glasgow had the largest kennel of black pointers in Scotland, and it was considered by far the best.. This was in 1839. Other breeders were the Earl of Wemyss and the Duke Of Hamilton, who had a large kennel of solid black pointers. The black prince, Maharajah Dhuleep Singh was a breeder of some of the finest, and Lord Home possessed in 1842 two separate kennels of solids, one at Douglas Castle and the other at Hirsel, Coldstream.

The Duke of Buccleugh was also quite a fancier of the solids, at three places belonging to him were kennels of black pointers maintained, the handsomest black pointers that Arkwright ever saw.

Mr. D.M. Forbes, of Riemore Lodge had solids that were famous for their splendid heads and fine quality, and he said "They have always been most excellent dogs, and I have never found an indifferent worker in a litter. Every pup I have reared has invariably turned out a good one."

Mr. John Millar, Mr. John Simpson, Lord Eglinton and a host of other breeders were all active with kennels of solid pointers. Mrs. Hill imported 2 solid black Pointers from Norway in the early 1950's...this dog brought the solid coloration to the present-day solids here in the United States. Leon Shriver brought back the solids in the early 1980's...breeding several litters just for color. There have been solid black, liver and orange from these breedings and they are still being seen today.

There was a time, in the early 70's that liver & white predominated the show ring, and the orange & white, lemon and white and black & white were not sought after colors. Today, we see all colors, including solids. It might be well to remember what our standard says in evaluating the colors of a pointer,