Famous Pomeranians: notable dogs in history and pop culture

Part 1

Queen Victoria and the Pomeranian boom

If you want to know how Pomeranians became fashionable in Britain, Queen Victoria is the place to start. She brought home a small Pomeranian named Marco during a trip to Florence in 1888. He weighed about twelve pounds and had a red sable coat. She went on to keep dogs in her royal kennels, and by the end of her life she had more than thirty Pomeranians there. Some sources report that the average size of the breed fell by about half during her lifetime, though one breeder's account argues she has been given too much credit for the change and that smaller show classes already existed before she got Marco. Either way, her enthusiasm for the breed is widely credited with making Pomeranians popular among British owners of the time.

Part 2

Pomeranians aboard the Titanic

You may already know the Titanic sank in 1912, but you might not know two Pomeranians were among the very few dogs that survived. Margaret Bechstein Hays carried her Pomeranian, recorded in different sources as Lady or Bebe, wrapped in a blanket into a lifeboat. Elizabeth Rothschild also kept her Pomeranian with her in a lifeboat, and the crew of the rescue ship Carpathia at first refused to let the dog aboard until she insisted on staying with it. Her husband did not survive the sinking.

• Lady, also recorded as Bebe, owned by Margaret Bechstein Hays, escaped in Lifeboat 7.
• An unnamed Pomeranian owned by Elizabeth Rothschild escaped in a lifeboat and was later reported to have died in a fight with another dog in New York.

If you have ever traveled with a small dog tucked under your arm, these accounts show that owners a century ago felt much the same pull to keep their dogs close in a crisis.

Part 3

Pomeranians in art and royal portraits

Sir Thomas Gainsborough painted Queen Charlotte's Pomeranians, Phoebe and Mercury, who are reported to have weighed as much as thirty to fifty pounds, far larger than today's dogs. Queen Victoria's Pomeranian Marco was later painted by Charles Burton Barber in a scene set at the Queen's breakfast table. The physicist Isaac Newton is said to have owned a Pomeranian named Diamond, who reportedly knocked over a candle and burned some of his papers.

Part 4

Pomeranians in entertainment and celebrity life

Your dog's breed has kept turning up in popular culture long after Victoria's kennels closed. Chester appeared alongside his real-life owner Fran Drescher in the television show The Nanny. Actress Cindy Williams, known for her role in Laverne and Shirley, appeared in advertisements with her own Pomeranian. In the show ring, a Pomeranian named Glen Rose Flashaway won the Toy Group at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in 1926, and in 1988 a Pomeranian named Great Elms Prince Charming II won Best in Show at the same event.

Part 5

What these famous dogs reveal about the breed

Looking back across these stories, a few things stand out about your own Pomeranian, if you have one. Pomeranians are alert and aware of changes in their environment. Pomeranians were bred down over generations from larger working dogs into the small, compact dogs you see today. Queen Victoria's dogs traveled with her in a specially made railway compartment.