The most authoritative document
of Victorian British dog fancy.
The Kennel Club was founded in 1873 and its Stud Book — official register of shows and pedigrees — was published annually from 1874. It was the most authoritative document on the classification of dogs in England. The fact that long-coated Retrievers had their own class — the XIII, "Retrievers (Wavy-Coated)" — from the first 1875 volume is weighty evidence: long coat was not a rarity, it was a recognised category with registered dogs, shows and official pedigrees.
Class XIII: Retrievers (Wavy-Coated)
in the official pedigree index.
Two things to note. First: Retrievers are divided by coat type — Wavy-Coated and Curly-Coated — not by breed. The Labrador as a separate breed did not yet exist. Second: Wavy-Coated precedes Curly-Coated in the numbering — it was the main class, not a subcategory.
Wavy-Coated in every British show
of the 1870s and 1880s.
"Retrievers. — Curly-coated — Dogs: 1st, Mr. J. W. Morris's True; 2nd, his Master Bob. [...] — Wavy or smooth-coated — Dogs: 1st and 2nd prizes divided between Mr. [S.E. Shirley's Peer] and [Mr. J. Rocke's Mentor]."The Kennel Club Calendar and Stud Book, Vol. II, 1875 — Dog Show results, Northampton
Show results systematically report two retriever categories. "Wavy or smooth-coated" was present at every major British show of the 1870s–80s with its own classes, its own judges, winners registered in the pedigree book. The most frequent Wavy-Coated winner of those years was S. E. Shirley — who was also the founder and first chairman of the Kennel Club.
From 1875 to 1903:
twenty years of official long coat.
The class "Retrievers (Wavy-Coated)" was present in the Kennel Club Stud Book uninterruptedly from the first 1875 volume until after the Labrador's recognition as a separate breed in 1903. For almost thirty years long coat in British retrievers had full institutional status: register, pedigree, shows, winners. When in 1903 the Labrador was recognised as a separate breed with the short-coat standard, it was not "normalising" something that had always been so — it was choosing one of the two documented varieties and classifying it as the standard, excluding the other.