On a trip to England to look for Chows, back when she was probably still Miss C. A. Knapp of Mastic, NY, Claire met a charismatic woman named Cora Charters. Cora had been showing Sealyhams since before WWI and by the 1930's had bred a dozen champions. Although described alternately as "arrogant" "fun loving" "immensely knowledgeable" and a "great lady of character" by dog fanciers, there seems to be a consensus that Cora Charters had raised the awareness of the Sealyham Terrier from a one time obscure breed to a royal family of champions.
Greatly impressed and with complete faith in Cora's judgment, Claire began exchanging letters across the sea with Cora filled with passionate ideas, dreams, advice and goals. And a great alliance was formed by these two great dog women. Claire always gave credit to the success that was to come to Clairedale to her mentor* Cora Charters and the St. Margaret prefix.
* Mentoring is a perhaps a strong trait passed on to Claire from her father J. P. Knapp, who believed strongly that education is the way to a better world. He funded for years, a magazine called Mentor to further that belief. It was only with the onset of the depression and huge financial losses on it, that he was persuaded by his accountants to put Mentor to bed...however like his magazines slogan "Learn Something New Everyday" J. P. Knapp never let his passion of helping others learn something new die out. The Knapp Foundation exists today to carry out some of his wishes, but it's too bad J.P. isn't still here to mentor the so called "world leaders" of today. They are a bunch of lost balls in the weeds.
With many years of experience and a phenomenal mentor behind her, Claire ventured into this new breed by entrusting Cora to select the best breeding stock that money could buy. Now some may say "of course Claire was successful she could afford it" but I totally disagree with that notion. I make no claims to be any form of dog expert, but I have learned a few things about the dog biz since I started studying the Knapp family these last few years and have great respect for what Claire Knapp accomplished. There is no greater proof that unlimited money although it certainly can be a big help can iron clad guarantee success. My case in point would be J. P. Morgan, the multi millionaire banker who tried his hand at the show dog game. After spending a large fortune trying to out do his rival Sam Untermeyer (one of J. P. Knapp's lawyers) with collies.... Morgan folded his entire kennel operation. True Claire had the financial resources, but she had something else too..... some would call it simply "the knack", "the touch", or whatever..... call it what you will, the lady had it in spades!
When Claire put her request into Cora to look for some foundation breeding stock to rebuild Clairedale, Cora did not have to look very far. In 1933 a male puppy had been born to the English bitch "Burdon Bliss" who was bred to Miss Charters great sire St. Margaret Snowman. Cora thought so much of the pup that she named him "Magnificent" because he was. Magnificent quickly finished his English Championship and Cora thought he would serve Clairedale well. She believed that his spirited character and breed type would mark him as a worthy contender in the show rings of America as well....and as she had been so many times before Miss Cora Charters was exactly right. So in August of 1935 St. Margaret Magnificent set sail for New York. Once he landed here the name Clairedale was tacked on to his moniker and the little champ and Claire set out for Hicksville, LI to visit another person who she would also credit in bringing great recognition to Clairedale ... Len Brumby..... "Terrier Man"