The Hamburgh: A part of History
Initially while researching Hamburghs through the many old poultry books from the 18th century it is clear the type has been recorded from as early as the 15th century when a penciled variety was described by Aldrovandus in 1630. Its also from my re-search appears the local English spangled fowl may owe its colouring and type to the Spitzbargen which is described in early text in the 17th century having been im-ported from the northern continent. Long there has been the question of the origin of the spangled variety that seems to have been created in the counties of Lancashire.
Each variety from the county‟s had their own name and specific spangling type, while the Lancashire variety were called Moonies, the variety from Yorkshire, the Crescents, had more crescent shaped spangles, in fact breeders of the day considered it beneficial to breed their full moon males over "nutty" or crescent females.
It was not till later that the variety known as Dutch Everlasting Layers was intro-duced into England, although they were not penciled as first thought, but barred! As proof this a stuffed specimen of a "penciled" Hamburgh hen is in a glass case at the Crystal Palace in Sydenham. Towards the late 1800s a sub variety appeared from Holland of which the Penciling were described more like "cobwebs" on the feathers and a blackish variety appeared as well described as not having the thick blotches giving the bird a silvery grey or a tinged brown appearance their hackles were pure white with black tails that were traced with white, this variety was called Mossies and were much admired.
Very shortly after a black Hamburgh appeared and were titled as Black or Gold Pheasants, or Bolton Bays. The new Dutch varieties were known also locally as Chittiprats or Praters, so called for their monotonous chattering sounds the hens ad-mitted long before laying their eggs. It is from this term describing the very popular fowl that the common saying "prattling on" arises to describe a person who talks away for no apparent reason. Of course we have many new varieties of Hamburghs today - White, Blue and Splashed, as well as Bantams of most colours.
Below I have formulated a chart describing the 2 different cataloged varieties of the 1800s.
Penciled fowls with light hackles: Chittiprat, Bolton Greys, Penciled Dutch, Silver Hamburgh and Creel or Coral.
Penciled fowls with dark hackles: Bolton Bay and Gold Hamburgh
Spangled fowls with light hackles: Silver spangles, Silver Pheasants, Silver Moon-ies and Silver Moss.
Spangles fowls with dark hackles: Gold spangles, Gold Pheasant, Gold Mooney, Red Caps and Copper Moss.
~ Corrina Sloane