These dogs belonged to a Mr. L. Allen Shuter (no pun intended). These are some very famous flat-coated retrievers, and they also appear in some of the early golden retriever pedigrees. The flat-coats of this time resembled what I would call working-type golden retrievers. The only obvious difference is that these dogs were black.
These images come from a Country Life Illustrated article that appeared on 10 May 1902:
Ch. Horton Rector
Horton Thyme
Horton Violet. From this photo, one can see she has obviously been nursing puppies. She reminds me of the golden retriever, Ch. Noranby Diana. who lived over a quarter century later.
Horton Violet with her puppies.
