juno, tinkerer, tanner

And Loiterer, Noisey, Ringwood, and Ranger, not to mention Caesar, Blossom, Rover, Piper, and two Trumpiters. What's all this then? These are the names of each dog portrayed in a set of silver buttons from the mid-eighteenth century, recently acquired by the Colonial Williamsburg museums.

The accompanying article speaks engagingly of what a find this is for American decorative arts of the time. Dogs, today such treasured pets, don't show up in the arts of our nation as much back then. Now in England it was different, as the article points out: "It has been said that upper-crust Englishmen had more time for their dogs than for their children. Dogs were vital to the rituals of hunting, which were pleasurable; children made demands, which were tiresome." Hm, after having a read, it sounds like the Virginia Hound could be a handful too! Have a look.