From The Dogs of the British Islands (1878 edition):
The Chinese edible dog has been long well known in this country as a curiosity, but the variety furnished with a crest and tufted tail is by no means common. Like the ordinary breed, it is quite hairless on the body and limbs, save only a few scattered and isolated hairs (about a dozen or eighteen on the whole surface); hence the thick tufts on the two extremities are the more remarkable. The skin is spotted, as shown in the engraving.
The individual from which our illustration was taken is the only one remaining of a litter of six, born from parents imported direct from China, both of which are now dead. She is (1866) two years old, but has never bred in consequence of the difficulty experienced in finding a mate of the same strain. As would be expected from her greyhound shape, she is fast and active, and is very affectionate in disposition, so that if the breed could be naturalised it would be acceptable to many as a novelty in the pet department (pg. 249-250).
There are some problems with Stonehenge’s assessment.
1. There is almost no evidence that Chinese crested dogs come from China. The only evidence one will likely encounter is some Westerner claiming that these dogs are Chinese, which is dubious evidence at best.
2. There is almost no evidence that anyone ate these dogs, although their most likely ancestor, the xoloitzcuintli and other Latin American hairless dogs, were eaten.
The ‘Chinese Edible Dog’ has always been the Chow Chow.
Mr. Henge was clearly third-handing information he didn’t actually understand. He’s the only source from that time period that I’ve found who claimed that hairless dogs were commonly eaten by the Chinese… in other accounts from that period the authors correctly stated that it was the -South Americans- who raised hairless dogs for food (and other purposes).