Early in the movie - which is set in 1572 - Catherine de Medici meets with her son, King Charles IX. She is accompanied by an entourage, one of whom is holding Norma Talmadge's personal pet, a sable-colored toy Pomeranian named "Dinky". Toy Pomeranians didn't exist before Queen Victoria ascended the throne of Great Britain in 1837. Before then, Pomeranians were medium-sized dogs, had white coats, and typically weighed 30 to 40 pounds (13.6 to 18.2 kg). Victoria wanted to develop a breed of Pomeranian lap dogs, so she began collecting and breeding Pomeranian litter runts a few years before she became queen. It would take about 40 years before toy Pomeranians weighing 4 to 8 pounds (1.8 to 3.6 kg) with a variety of coat colors were available - about 300 years after this film takes place.