Spratt’s in Late 19th and Early 20th Century Dog Literature

James Spratt was an American entrepreneur living in England who manufactured the first processed dry food for dogs around 1860.  By the 1870s, the company was selling its biscuits in America, eventually opening a factory in New York. Spratt’s Patent produced a wide array of dog foods, medicines, soaps, publications and kennel equipment as well as providing benching and feeding services at shows and arranging the importation of dogs from overseas. The company also produced foods for poultry and other animals.

In this post, I’ve curated a collection of Spratt’s advertisements and articles from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that I hope will convey a sense of the company and its liberal marketing strategy.

Making the tiny print a bit larger on the dog biscuit portions in the above ad:

A rather small slight against Spratt’s was given a mention amidst the reports from a dog show in the April 8, 1886 issue of Forest and Stream. The following reply was printed in the next issue:

Spratt’s and Mr. Watson reconciled soon after this exchange and he endorsed their biscuits. (Read on.)

The following appeared on the front page of the December 1886 issue of Poultry Keeper:

Dog Biscuits and Chicken Food.
The “Spratt’s Patent” (English) Dog Biscuits are excellent for poultry. The American Poultry Journal says they have been sold for twenty-five years, and that it is a perfect food for dogs. Briefly stated, the Spratt’s dog food is made of wheaten flour (chiefly that known as middlings) oatmeal, dates, beetroot and prairie meat. That the flour and the oatmeal are good for dogs no one will deny, and that such is used is sound the merchants who supply this firm could testify If they were asked. But of the other ingredients a little more need be said.
Dates were the first article of a vegetable or fruity nature introduced, and have had the anti-sorbutic effect so desirable in the feeding of dogs. For many years they only were employed, and at that time it was advised that fresh vegetables should be given twice a week, additional to the biscuits. Searching for something that would obviate the need for this addition, it was discovered that the only vegetable which did not lose its distinguishing properties under the great heat to which the cakes are subjected in baking is beetroot, and, as it has all the desirable elements, for some years all the biscuits sent out have contained beetroot. The last ingredient is “prairie meat,” which is not, as many suppose, tallow greases or butchers’ refuse. It is meat from Mid and South America. From it all surplus fat has been removed, but the most valuable gristle and bones remain to be ground up, and it is not only of the highest quality, from a feeding point in view, but perfectly sweet and good. The animals from which it comes are the fine beasts killed for the sake of their hides, horns and tallow; so that all the beef remains, and analysis has shown that it is much more nutritious than the beef usually sold in our butchers’ shops, for it contains only five per cent. of water.

Spratt’s ran five full page ads in the front of the book The dog’s medical dictionary (full source information below), showcasing a wide range of specialized foods:

In the book The encyclopaedia of the kennel (full source information below), numerous Spratt’s dog supplies were used as inset sketches:

In June and July 1918, Spratt’s ran this ad referring to war shortages:

In August and September 1918, the company ran this ad, responding to the “perhaps intentionally circulated” rumor (which Spratt’s itself started) that war shortages were causing a shutdown: