The Papillon, known in the sixteenth century as the dwarf spaniel, is the modern development of those little dogs often seen pictured in rare old paining and tapestries and can be traced through the paintings of the Old Masters of every country in Western Europe as far back as the earliest years of the 16th Century. Beginning about 1500, Vecelli (called Titian), painted a number of tiny spaniels, rather similar to the hunting spaniels of the day. In this century and the next, dogs - so like the Titian spaniel that it is safe to assume this was a pure breed - made their appearance in Spain, France and the Low Countries.

We can only speculate on the ancestry of the Titian spaniel, Classical Greece and Rome possessed toy dogs but these were a spitz type which seems to have become extinct. During the Dark Ages, only hunting and working dogs would have been of value, but with the dawn of the Renaissance, Italy became a prolific source of toy breeds of many varied types; toy greyhounds, dwarf barbets (a sort of miniature poodle, often clipped lion fashion), dogs of Cayenne (which were curiously pug-like), and a number of breeds which probably resulted from crosses of various sorts. The toy spaniel was quite different in its characteristics from any of these.

The continued popularity of the little spaniel in court circles gave the breeders a readymarket for their dogs. Evidently they conducted an intensive breeding programme for its refinement. Over the years it developed finer bone, more abundant coat and profuse feather. The most characteristic change, however, was in the shape of the head.

Suddenly, toward the end of the 19th Centuruy, the erect ear carriage with its butterfly appearance became highly fashionable. In fact, it so caught the public fancy that the new term of "Papillon" quickly became the name for the entire breed. Several attempts have been made in the past to straighten out the names of the two varieties, without much success. The International Papillon Organization, to which the American but not the English club is affiliated, has given to the drop eared variety the name of "Phalene."

The Titian dogs were red and white. Before long, speciments appeared in all shades from pale lemon to deepest chestnut, while some of the most beautiful examples were black and white or silver-grey and white. All these colours were usually marked with a white blaze and often with the thumb mark on the top of the head.

People often insist on a one word answer to the question. "Where does the breed come from?" Baron Albert Houtart of Belgium, author of the most authoritative work on this subject, demonstated that credit for perfecting the Continental Toy Spaniel belongs equally to France and to Belgium.

The little Papillon has survived rather better than the Royal Families in whose courts he was once such a favourite. Men, women and children of all ages and in all walks of life, take him into their laps and hearts. Now, as truly as in the past, when he has found his way into a home he is there to stay, as loving as he is beloved.