We have received many delighted and appreciative responses when putting selected pieces of art work on the Web Site - one person told us today that although her breed is Newfoundland's (yes, people in other breeds access this site!!) the art work as made her desperately want a Pekingese puppy. You may thing we are perhaps spoiling the surprise by being this generous in revealing some of the art work in advance - not a bit of it, there will be approximately 120 original paintings and drawings in the two Volumes of the Millennium Book so we can afford the luxury. What we WILL say is that nothing -nothing at all - can possibly prepare advertisers and purchasers of the Millennium Book for the richness of the art work and colour photography, nor the standard of the  printing

Below are two of Deirdre's "adapted engravings" which she introduced in the Millennium Book of the King Charles Spaniel and which have been much admired for their humour as well as the inventiveness of the concept. Deirdre "adapts" old engravings (sometimes paintings too" by masking out a selected area of the image, copying it then adding the breed of dog concerned and reworking the picture, including colouring it in f course, so that it is in an homogenous, period style.

The Edwardian Lady with her red and white Pekingese is adapted from a late 19th Century engraving in a ladies fashion magazine, and will accompany the feature on Particolours.

The advance viewing of the second picture is a bit special, because it is one of the two Endplates which are a feature of the Millennium Books, as anyone with the two previous Books will know. Of course the fact that the Millennium Book of the Pekingese is in two volumes has given us added scope for invention - the Endplate to the second volume will bear the legend "....and so to bed", as is now standard for the Millennium Books, but this one, the Endplate for the first Volume required something different. It will contain the text ".......to be continued".

Both Endplates (you will not be permitted to see the second one until the Book is published!) are adapted from beds designed by the great English furniture maker Thomas Sheraton,  as was the bed in the Millennium Book of the King Charles Spaniel (although the bed in the Millennium Book of the Papillon was part of the Great Exhibition of 1851, and was French).

This Endplate, like its companion, is executed in Indian ink, coloured ink, metallic water colour pencil and pearlescent inks. It is very likely that both Endplates with be printed as A5 Greetings Cards after the publication of the Book.