Born on November 16, 1851 in Amsterdam, he is the son of a rich ship-owner who had an unquestionable interest for breeding,
so much so that he supported the newborn passion of his son for hunting and dogs, passion that was overriding his taste
for business. The young Eduard Karel Korthals preferred to raise dogs and to hunt wildfowl, than to join the paternal company.

In 1873, at age 22, with the financial support of his father, he settled close to some friends in Hesse (Germany) a regon
abounding with game. Four years later, one of his friends, Prince of Solms-Braunfels, entrusts him with the management of
his Bibesheim kennel, the most famous of Germany, made up especially of English pointers, while enabling him to continue to
simultaneously breed griffons.

Korthals was going to become one of the largest stockbreeders, proud of his selection work. He began with 7 griffons of any type,
wire-haired, woolly hair, barbet and a German half-bred with short hair. The 7 PATRIARCHS of griffons were : Banco, Hector,
Janus, Satan, Donna, Junon and Mouche. To arrive, in less than 20 years, to a specific breed of wire-haired pointing griffon,
Korthals carried out coupling in very narrow consanguinity and was devoted to a pitiless selection. Out of 600 dogs,
he kept only 62 and made them work in woods, in the marsh, in plains, by all time, trusting them on all kinds of game.

In the creation of the wire-haired pointing griffon, Korthals did not use any English blood (pointer), because after having tried it,
he found out that such a crossing made the pointing griffon lose some of its true characteristics. With its method of consanguinity,
selection and drive, the Korthals griffons were of such quality that they astounded the specialists in Germany, in Belgium,
in the Netherlands, in France and a little everywhere in Europe, as much by the width and the speed of their search than by the
smoothness of their sense of smell and that of their versatility.

On November 15, 1887, through the instructions of a Commission of 16 stockbreeders chaired by Prince of Solm-Braunfels,
E.K.Korthals wrote the standard of Wire-haired pointing griffons; it has never been modified ever since. The following year,
he created a Griffon Club bringing together griffon lovers from various countries and until his death in 1896, he was devoted
to the improvement and the diffusion of the wire-haired pointing griffon. He died of cancer of the larynx on July 4,
1896 in the Bibeishem kennel.

His ideas had sufficiently made followers to survive him and his friends the Baron of GinGins (Switzerland), Charles Prudommeaux
(France) and Mr. Leliman (Holland) continued his invaluable work, the improvement of the wire-haired pointing griffon and his
diffusion through all of Europe and even in North America. On the occasion of his fiftieth anniversary, on June 8, 1951,
the French club of the wire-haired pointing griffon decided to associate the name of Korthals with the designation of the race to
perpetuate the memory of its creator ; cheers and thank you for the leaders of the French Club of the time.

Principle sources of this text :
- Le Griffon d'Arrêt à Poil Dur Korthals de Jean Castaing aux éditions de l'Orée
- Mon Compagnon le Chien, volume 13 aux éditions Atlas
- Le Chasseur Français, magazine, october 1996

Reproduction forbidden of this text without written authorization

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