Venaticus Collection


For more than 30 years Venaticus Collection has been publishing a small number of high quality limited edition prints of carefully selected paintings of working dogs. The majority of the original works have been bought for the purpose, then cleaned or restored as necessary. Access to other works has been agreed on terms with owners.

Much care is taken to ensure colour reproduction faithful to the original paintings, and the imprint has become known thereby as a specialist source of reproductions of great beauty and lasting value.

The highest standards of origination and fine art quality reproduction are exercised. Hence heavy grade acid-free papers and light-fast inks are employed, and printing is finished with a clear varnish coat, assuring the lasting value of an irresistible image preserved in all its depth, detail and atmosphere.

Purchasers are advised to instruct framers to use conservation framing techniques, using UV glass (ideally, but not essentially, non-reflective). The choice of coloured mounts (“matts”) and frames are at the discretion of purchasers, while natural dark wood frames with a narrow gold inside edge, and a pale mount with colour-wash lines, are recommended for consideration.

The quality and speed of service is equally important. Orders are acknowledged immediately and usually despatched within 24-48 hours, protected within packing tubes. As printed paper they should not attract the attention of customs officers in overseas destinations, but the tubes can be opened and resealed for inspection without harm.

In the event of any problem or damage in transit, purchasers should immediately advise us so that speedy new arrangements can be made, including where necessary the replacement of a print.

Previous purchasers will know of the printing quality, the fast service and the no-quibble guarantee of safe delivery in perfect condition.

"A cautionary tail ..."

If being copied is the sincerest form of flattery, we take comfort from the unauthorised sellers who from time to time appear with what look like Venaticus Collection prints, but are in fact second generation copies inevitably of a lower standard and which are produced in breach of copyright.

We do what we can to discourage this passing-off, and appeal to purchasers to disregard such abusers and obtain their prints from the original source.

If any owners are in doubt about the authenticity of what they have been offered or may have bought, a check with Venaticus Collection will quickly establish the truth, as a record of where each print sold goes is permanently kept.

Clumbers


The New Keeper


This offer for Clumber spaniel enthusiasts is a work of art that is both delightful and different.

Called The New Keeper, it is a charming composition of a boy – probably the young master dressed up in gamekeeper’s attire of coat and bowler hat, and with a muzzle-loading gun, all much too big for him – where he is the centre of attention for a whole kennel of Clumbers. The scene suggests a location on one of the big sporting estates in Victorian England.

Dating from 1888, The New Keeper was painted exactly 100 years after the work that marks the first evidence of Clumbers in England, The Return from Shooting by Francis Wheatley. The painting is by Charles Burton Barber. He was the artist whose pictures were used in many of the most familiar Pears soap advertising posters tenderly portraying children with dogs.

Barber’s scene of Clumbers joining the boy’s game of make-believe was almost certainly a commissioned work by the owner of an estate big enough to warrant such a sizeable kennel. There, the dogs would have been worked in teams to move game to holding coverts (called “blanking in”), the birds then driven towards standing guns, as well as hunted singly and in pairs and shot over as they are today.

Attempts to trace the location have not yet borne fruit – so if anyone out there recognises the place, or the keeper’s uniform, do let us know.

The picture is a hitherto little-known work by an acclaimed artist whose chief patron was Queen Victoria; she commissioned him to paint her favourite dogs for almost 25 years. He was a regular exhibitor at the Royal Academy, and won numerous accolades. With a clue from another Clumber owner, this oil painting was traced to the storeroom of an obscure municipal gallery in the English Midlands. Under exclusive arrangements, it has now been reproduced, to a very high standard that faithfully replicates the original work in all its quality.

The dogs depicted would not be out of place today, with all the characteristics – and character – of the largest breed of land spaniel, still a rare breed, distinctive in its pearly-white coat with lemon markings, its pink nose, short ears, sad-looking eyes and big feet.

The New Keeper is now available, in an edition limited to 500 hand-numbered prints, size 18 x 22½ in. (45 x 57 cm.), including a 2 – 2½ in. (5½ – 7 cm.) border.

Venaticus Collection - The New Keeper

£44

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A Rest between Labours


A striking close portrayal of the working Clumbers at Clumber Park by John Emms (1843-1912), probably one of his later works, judging from the bold brushwork that not merely captures the character and presence of some of the breed’s foundation stock while taking a breather from their successful hunt, but brings these beautiful dogs to life.

A superb quality image, printed to demanding standards, faithfully reproducing the original painting in oils, available as a limited edition of 500 copies, individually numbered. Dimensions (including two-inch border) approx. 17 x 20 in. (43 x 51 cm.).

Venaticus Collection - A rest Between Labours

£44

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A Kennel at ease


Venaticus Collection - A Kennel At Ease

£44

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A delightful and powerful portrayal of the Duke and Duchess of Newcastle’s Clumber spaniels in their kennels at Clumber Park, Nottinghamshire. Dated 1880, it is probably the first of the several studies of this famous kennel undertaken by John Emms during visits to the breed’s ancestral home, and it is believed to be the single work depicting Clumbers he exhibited at the Royal Academy, in 1882. The original oil painting was obtained only in 2023 from a collection in California and is now a treasured addition to the Venaticus Collection.

A fine quality print, a careful and faithful reproduction of the original painting in oils, available as a limited edition of 355 copies, individually numbered. Dimensions (including border) approx. 18 x 22 in. (45 x 56 cm.).

The full limited edition of 355 having been sold, a handful of full quality copies remain available, inscribed 'proof' in place of a number.

Clumber Spaniels at Clumber Park


This picture, also by John Emms and dating from the early 1880s, shows five dogs hunting as a team, typically the manner in which the breed was worked on the major estates to which the breed had been confined for the previous 100 years.

The print, a limited edition of 355 copies, is not available from stock, the full edition having been sold. Owners are invited to sell copies, if in good condition and probably framed, back to the publisher – please enquire individually. Equally, prospective purchasers may register their interest.

Venaticus Collection - Clumber Spaniels At Clumber Park

Clumber Spaniels and Pheasants


Venaticus Collections - Clumber Spaniels and Pheasants

£44

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This print was the first to be published by Venaticus Collection, in 1980. It is a rare and most attractive study in oils, undertaken by Tom Heywood in 1904, depicting working examples of the breed when the breed was in its heyday and dominating the earliest field trials.

The full limited edition of 300 having been sold, a handful of full quality copies remain available, inscribed 'proof' in place of a number.

Other Breeds


A Well-earned Rest


A charming study of a hunt terrier reliving a long day's exertions, endearingly observed enjoying the comfort of its chosen and rightful place. Painted in oils by Philip Eustace Stretton, well-known for his animal and sporting subjects, this masterful picture is dated 1922, a few years later than his career is believed to have ended. In what was possibly his last work, the artist perhaps saw a parallel between himself and the tired old hunt servant.

A fine quality print, faithfully reproducing the glorious colours of the original, avaliable as a limited edition of 850 copies, each individually numbered. Dimensions (including border) approx. 18 x 22in. (45 x 56cm.).

Venaticus Collection - A Well-earned Rest

£40

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Pointer in the Eden Valley, Westmorland


Venaticus Collection - Pointer in the Eden Valley, Westmorland

£40

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In the grey light of an overcast November afternoon, against a backdrop of sombre woodland flanking the banks of the river Eden in flood, a liver-and-white pointer bitch stiffens as she turns into the wind bringing her the excitement of a pheasant’s scent. A treatment in contrasts, so skilfully executed by the artist, between a subdued and austere landscape and the strength of its dominant subject, to which the eye unfailingly returns.

Painted in watercolour and gouache by perhaps the foremost 20th century sporting dog artist, R. Ward Binks (d. 1950), and faithfully reproduced on heavy grade coated cartridge paper, limited to 500 copies, individually numbered by hand. Dimensions (including border) approx. 18 x 22 in. (45 x 56 cm.).

English Setters below Cross Fell


Mid-morning on a warm September day, early mists still holding to the high ground above the fringe of the moor. The heather is already browning after its purple flowering, its glory soon past. First find of the day sends an old campaigner’s blood racing and gives him a chance to show his young brace mate, his grandson maybe, how it is done in style. A fascinating and meticulously detailed study of two noble setters.

Painted in watercolour and gouache by perhaps the foremost 20th century sporting dog artist, R. Ward Binks (d. 1950), and faithfully reproduced on heavy grade coated cartridge paper, limited to 500 copies, individually numbered by hand. Dimensions (including border) approx. 18 x 22 in. (45 x 56 cm.).

Venaticus Collection - English Setters below Cross Fell

£40

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FTCh Rivington Simon


Venaticus Connection - FTCh Rivington Simon

£40

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A portrait of a remarkable cocker spaniel, shown retrieving from the wooded slopes above the river Dee which flows through the lands of the Dildawn Estate, Kirkcudbrightshire, home of the renowned Rivington kennel. Aged 18 months, he won his first field trial, an open cocker stake, in November 1927, gaining his field trial champion's title ten days later with a second victory. The following January he won the cocker championship held at Cally, a few miles from his kennel. The Ward Binks painting was done the same year, at the request of his owner, the great spaniel authority, C. A. Phillips.

Note that this work is elsewhere erroneously described, as depicting a Clumber spaniel, by unauthorised sources offering poor quality second-generation copies in breach of copyright.

Painted in watercolour and gouache by perhaps the foremost 20th century sporting dog artist, R. Ward Binks (d. 1950), and faithfully reproduced on heavy grade coated cartridge paper, limited to 500 copies, individually numbered by hand. Dimensions (including border) approx. 18 x 22 in. (45 x 56 cm.).

Gordon Setters on a Pennine Fell


A brace of Gordons working on a typical English grouse moor, believed to be near Murton Fell. The sombre tones of the distant view under threat of an August storm, shrouded in mist and with cloud descending, are an interesting contrast, characteristic of Ward Binks's better work, to the fresh colours of the moorland grasses and heather in the foreground, dominated by the eager optimism and easy confidence of the magnificent Gordon setters drawing on scent.

The full limited edition of 500 having been sold, a handful of copies from the original print run remain available, inscribed 'proof' in place of a number.

Venaticus Collection - Gorden Setters on a Pennine Fell

£40

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