The world’s premier dog show, Cruft’s, is staged this month at Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre. The event normally attracts a large television audience to enjoy the judging and ‘fun’ parts compared by Ben Fogel and Clair Balding. But not this year, because the Kennel Club refused the BBC’s request that certain breeds be excluded. If you can’t get to the N.E.C. you can still view some fine examples of classy canines, courtesy of our set of the month for March – Godfrey Phillips M30 “Our Dogs”. Produced exactly seventy years ago, the series comprises superb colour paintings of dogs’ heads each of which seems to capture the animal’ distinctive personality, among them the Pointer which, we are told, “at one time was indispensable to those who search the fields for snipe”, whilst the picture of a pert little Sealyham puppy is incredibly well observed by the artist who regrettably is not named.

This set of M30 Our Dogs issued by Godfrey Phillips in 1939 in very good/Finest Collectable condition is catalogued at £18.00.