A silver sculpture of Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha’s greyhound Eos, commissioned by Queen Victoria and given to him for his 21st birthday, 26th August 1840.
By R&S Garrard, Panton Street, London, 1840, cast from a lost wax by their chief modeller Edmund Cotterell.
Eos, a black Greyhound with white on her face, chest, feet, and the tip of her tail, was the devoted dog of Prince Albert. Earlier in 1840 when he voyaged from Germany to England to marry Queen Victoria, Eos was his only companion, the only living being to support him on his journey into a new life. A life among strangers, many of whom viewed the heavily accented Prince with suspicion. During these first lonely moments and in the following years Eos was a comfort to the Prince, his loyal and constant companion.
Length: 10 in. (25.4 cm.).
In a letter Albert wrote to Queen Victoria before he travelled to England he affectionately wrote of Eos.
You ask after…my faithful, but not disinterested Eos. She is very well, looks after herself as much as she can, sleeps by the stove, is very friendly if there is plum-cake in the room, very much put out when she has to jump over the stick, keen on hunting, sleepy after it, always proud and contemptuous of other dogs.
The model of Eos was given on likely the first opportunity for a gift after they were married. Queen Victoria mentions in her journal on 26th August 1840:
These I give him (from myself), a fine opal set with diamonds, a silver figure of Eos, a Field Marshal’s Baton… with all of which he was much pleased.
The commission had been some months in the planning and is recorded in Garrard’s Ledger on 27th July, 1840 as:
A model of a greyhound in silver on a black stand – 40 oz – £42 5s. With case (morocco leather with 2 gold buttons, lined in silk velvet) – £4
Cash paid to Mr. Cotterell for making model of greyhound £10
Eos lived until 1844 and witnessed the flourishing love and growing family of Prince Albert and Queen Victoria. After her death the queen noted in her journal,
She had been his constant & faithful companion for 10-1/2 years and she was only 6 months old, when he first had her. She was connected with the happiest years of his life . . . such a beautiful & sweet creature and used to play so much with the children.
Eos’ alert pose in the silver sculpture, stood, head held high, front paws aligned and one rear leg forward is mimicked in the famous portrait of her, held in the Royal Collection, by Sir Edwin Landseer. Which Queen Victoria gave to Prince Albert for Christmas 1841.
In the striking painting she stands in front of a scarlet tablecloth guarding her master’s possessions his leather gloves, top hat and ivory-topped cane. A deerskin footstool with hoof feet symbolising the prince’s sporting interests. Greyhounds are a breed traditionally associated with court life, and Landseer’s portrait tacitly alludes to earlier pictures such as Titian’s Charles V with his Dog (Prado, Madrid) and Van Dyck’s James Stuart, Duke of Richmond and Lennox (New York, Metropolitan Museum).
The strength of the Prince’s and Eos’ relationship is dramatically shown in St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle. On the cenotaph by Henri de Triqueti, commissioned by Queen Victoria to honour her husband, Eos is modelled curled at the feet of her master. Guarding him for eternity.
With thanks to John Hawkins for his study of the sculpture.