At the turn of the 20th century, Americans and Europeans were fascinated with the exotic, the extremes of size--both the giant and the extremely small--and beasts from far away places. In 1906 to 1909, the British aristocracy, such as the Marquis of Stafford, Prince Adolphus of Teck, and Baron Alfred de Rothschild, were obsessed with pygmy parlor ponies.
Mr. Albert Jamrach, an exotic animal vendor in Britain, described them as “the funniest little things imaginable. They are as wooly as a sheep and quiet as lambs” and “well mannered in the house.” But then he was in the business of selling what he called “freaks” such as “tiny ‘teddy bears’ [from Borneo], queer kangaroos, ‘crowned’ cranes, and other weird specimens.”
He claimed the source of his 28-inch ponies were the few stunted Icelandics that appeared in every shipment of ponies from Iceland–stunted supposedly due to lack of nourishment on the bare grazing lands on the island.
The reader might suspect these were foals due to his caution that “They do not naturally breed as pygmies.” In other words, don’t breed two of them and expect a lap pony.
(EO, p. 6; MNA, 1909, p. 36, Washington Times, October 18, 1908, p. 36.)
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