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 magazine Le Chasseur Français, numéro d'octobre 1996.

Reproduction forbidden of this text without written authorization

Asbed Iskedjian

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 hisson 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.

Eduard Karel Korthals

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.

Capitaine Fracasse

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.

The Griffon KORTHALS is a very strong and vigorous pointing dog with a great intelligence, a passion without end for hunting
and a great resistance to the cold and the bad weather.Here is what abbot GODARD has written in his book
" Je dresse mon chien d’arrêt "at EMPHORA editions. " The first characteristic of this dog, it is to be rustic.
With such a bristle, it fears nothing, neither freezing water nor the most sharp-edged spines.
Thus, it is very indicated for the marsh and dense thickets."

Celtick pointing a ruffed grouse

In the marshes, it is the wildfowl, and in the thick thickets, it’s the woodcock and even the grouse. Thus, the griffon KORTHALS
is a pointing dog witha beautiful and a long garanteed future. Here is a passage from another book, "Le guide du chien de chasse"
from Pierre ROUSSELET-BLANC at Fernand Nathan editions. "... Fearless of bushes, its endurance in the bramblebush and
the forest canopy equals its resistance to the marshes where it shows incomparable talent, paddling, seeking, retreiving by
the coldest temperatures. The frozen waters or the density of the vegetation do not seem
cruel to the KORTHALS which is well armed by nature to face them..."

Ranger in WHOA after the woodcock's takeoff

And how about its looks: quite marked bore moustache and eyebrows and its silver steel color make it a dog charmer and one
of most beautiful among dogs. My choice for the Griffon KORTHALS is due to its look and its capacity to "cross-country".
The book LE GUIDE DU CHIEN DE CHASSE from Pierre ROUSSELET-BLANC at FERNAND NATHAN
editions thus had a great influence in my choice.

Celtick with two woodcocks
looking to the sky on Canada Geese in migration

A symbol of fidelity

If I had to choose a symbol for fidelity,
it’s good griffon head that I would’ve chosen

M. Ponson du Terrail, (1829-1871) écrivain Français