museum cats day

courtesy rijkmuseum (PD) http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.collect.96501

For #MuseumCats day over on Twitter, I've found this engraving by Louis Bernard Coclers over at the Rijkmuseum:  "Kat zit op een stoof," circa 1756-1817.  This translates to "Cat sitting on a stove," which is kind of alarming till you realize it's actually a warming-pan sort of thing.  So, sometime in the 18th-19th century, a Dutch cat did what cats everywhere do best: find the comfy...and hog it.

"jack overseas, dog of the bass drum"

"You may have heard of Jack, the little dog of the United States Artillery that chased General Pershing’s horse and made our great American commander take a short, unintentional ride one review day in France."

No, actually I hadn't - and if any friend of the Museum knows a little more about him, I'm all ears!  I have not been able to track anything about this little WWI hero who was secreted in a ship's bass drum all the way to Liverpool.  His story began in Mexico in 1916, where he was adopted as a puppy by US soldiers looking for Pancho Villa.  The regiment took their new friend to Fort Myer in Virginia that year (which is how I deduce this must have been the 12th Field Artillery Regiment), and then smuggled him aboard their ship transport to France:
* * *
How to get one little dog across the sea was an absorbing question with Jack’s friends, until some one suggested putting him into a bass drum. So into the bass drum went the little dog, with orders to keep still.
On the day of embarkation many a young soldier kept his spirits up by the thought of Jack hiding in the bass drum, when he might have been sadly depressed, thinking of loved ones he was leaving behind and might never see again.
Like a good soldier, Jack obeyed orders without asking questions. He may have heard the captain in charge of his battery solemnly tell the ship’s officers that no animals had come on board with the men of his command. . . At last the ship’s officers found out that there was a dog on board their ship. They searched for the little fellow and, before the voyage was ended, Jack had tried all the hiding places known to stowaways of his family. Ship’s officers and sailors were continually saying, “Where is that dog?” But they never found him. When eleven or twelve hundred American soldiers are united in their determination to hide the regimental dog, that pet is not likely to be caught.

* * *
By the time he chased Black Jack Pershing's horse, Jack the dog's position was unassailable, luckily for him.
 -  The whole story can be found in Fox, F. Margaret. (1927). Uncle Sam's animals: by Frances Margaret Fox. New York: The Century Co 141-7.

vintage wednesday, ship edition

LOC, Gift; State Historical Society of Colorado; 1949http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/det1994014009/PP/

I look for ship cats and dogs, and yet what I keep finding are....goats.  How many of you have seen this one of "Pitch," the mascot of the the USS New York?  This was taken by photographer Edward H. Hart in the years between 1893-1901.

a squirrel mug and a beautiful start

By Daderot (Own work) [Public domain or CC0], via Wikimedia Commons

This English earthenware mug dating from circa 1830-1860 is stout as it needs to be for a child's use.  At the same time, the lyrical illustration it bears of a feasting squirrel makes it appealing (I'd certainly like to own it).  Not only would the child using this have an example of well-executed drawing, but perhaps they also noted the squirrel too is gaining nourishment. What better encouragement for a young one?  I can hear it now: The squirrel eats breakfast, and so must you.
If you're interested, here's the website for The Potteries Museum, where you can learn more about Staffordshire wares like this one.

getting the ship's goat?

Once upon a time, the USS Von Steuben had a goat for a mascot.  Here's what we know, as recorded in a memoir about the ship's part in WWI:

* * *

DON'T GET THE "VONNIE'S" GOAT
The mascot of the crew is a goat, "Billy," who is always eager to stage a mimic fight with his chums, the two dogs, "Tomatoes" and "Commodore," the latter named being the pride of Commander Wilcox. The goat is a source of much enjoyment for the crew; he pulls a varied number of funny stunts. His friends are the "boys." The Commander's dog "Commodore," after which the Hotel Commodore was named, is a favorite in the ward room. When "Commodore" is on duty in the Executive's room no one can go near it. In Panama every man had a parrot, but why mention unpleasant things?

* * *

Have I figured out which Hotel Commodore, by the way?  No.

- Ruggles, L. Elsworth. (1919). The part the U.S.S. Von Steuben played in the great war. Brooklyn, [N.Y.]: Brooklyn Eagle Press. 63.

red dog

By Franz Marc (1880–1916) (Staatsgalerie Stuttgart) [PD], via Wikimedia Commons

By the time he painted this "Roter Hund" (Red Dog" in 1911, Franz Marc had moved his studies from theology to painting.  In a way, he hadn't moved all that far, as he approached art with a search for spiritual purity that placed animals at the center of his symbolism.  Color was paramount, too: for example, red came to equal the materially bound, even violent aspects of life.  I'm not sure he had that philosophy solidified in this early work, in which a monumentally scaled dog rests in a rugged landscape.  Marc's animal symbol of choice, eventually, was the horse, and it's with horses that his work reached its full flower.

dogs on ships: here's one

Wilhelm Hester [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Well, this is exciting - The Pet Museum is partnering with the MB Fountain over in the UK to co-curate an online exhibition of dogs on ships! This all hit me late yesterday, so I'm still prepping ideas and research. Get ready for a lot of historic/vintage photos of dogs on deck, everyone! Stay tuned!
Meanwhile, I'm starting off with this snap from back in the day in The Pet Museum's neighborhood: Capt CH Jensen & his dog on the ALSTERKAMP, Puget Sound, WA, ca 1904.

wordless wednesday

mistaken? yet beautiful

thanks vintageprintable.com (PD)

This serene and elegant natural history illustration was labeled as a Doberman, but I think otherwise.  Not only does this creature not resemble any Doberman I've ever seen, but the inscription at the side reads "Canis venaticus Tunicus."  My usual rough Latin translation is coming up with "Hunting dog, Tunisian."  (Got a correction?  Seriously, tell me.)  So - a saluki, an Afghan Hound?  In any case, worth the moment's savoring.  If the actual piece glows like this illustration, it might be on parchment.  Look too at how fresh those colors remain after what I'm betting is at least a couple centuries, if not three.

a landscape painter paints his pet cat

By Johann Benjamin Ehrenreich (1733 or 1739–1806) (Dr. Senckenbergische Stiftung) [PD], via Wikimedia Commons

muff

 John Wootton, Muff: a Black and White Dog. Photographic Rights © Tate, CC-BY-NC-ND 3.0 (Unported), museum record here

Might this appealing mutt named Muff have been a noble pet?  According to the painting's information page at the Tate, an old inscription on its reverse reads "From the Collection of the Duchess of Portland," and its date of creation c. 1740-50 would line up with the lifetime of Margaret Cavendish-Bentinck.  A gifted natural historian, she had particular interests in birds, seashells and botany; you'll notice the unusual bird and flower on the right.  John Wootton (English, c. 1682 - 1764) was a fashionable painter of sporting scenes, and enjoyed a good deal of patronage from the nobility.  He normally focused on horses, but let's face it, when the Duchess of Portland asks for a dog portrait, you make her one.  I'd like to think that the friendly, relaxed feel of this work had its source in the atmosphere around that gifted lady.

hound and varlet, 13th c

the metropolitan museum of art  - Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917

Actually the record at the Met for this object dating from c. 1240 reads "Medallion with Varlet with Horn and Hound."  I changed it to refer to my biased view.  This small decoration is gilt and enamel cloisonné on copper, 3 9/16" diameter, made in Limoges.  (You probably know that name for something else way more breakable made way later.)

designing your pekingese

Today I'm bringing you a snippet from a 1914 book, in which we learn that being an Imperial Pekingese involved, in essence, punching oneself in the face repeatedly.
* * *
The Lion, or Sun Dogs, as they were also called, were so highly prized by the Emperors of China and the Court that they were kept exclusively in the Imperial Palace at Pekin, and in the Temples, as Sacred Dogs. No person outside the Palace or Temples was even permitted to see them, and anyone who ventured to remove one of these dogs from the Sacred Precincts met with the certain punishment of a lingering death. 

The greatest care was taken of them, each having a slave girl to attend to it and massage its nose to the flatness regarded as one of the chief beauties in this breed. One method of attaining this flatness of the nose, and the prominent eyes, was to nail a piece of hard meat to a wall or board, and the dog in jumping up to get it hit its nose, and its eyes started out of the head, in the many vain attempts to get the tough dainty.

-- from Daniel, M. N. (1914). Some Pekingese pets. London: John Lane company. 10-11.

wordless wednesday

with many thanks to candace and...is this lucy?

june on the lawn

From The New York Public Library http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/

Here's what you would have seen on the cover of your Harper's Magazine in June 1897:  another in a long series of bold, seasonally appropriate graphics by Edward Penfield, the master of American poster and graphic art.  If this looks a lot like Toulouse-Lautrec to you, you're quite right.  Penfield adapted Toulouse-Lautrec's bold approach, as well as the celebration of the simple fleeting moment found in Japanese prints. (The 1890's were a prime decade for the Western adaptation of the "new" Japanese art influence - we call that "Japonisme.")  Here's an essay on Penfield, and here's a cover I adore (it's for March - get it?).

fabricats

copyright and by kindest permission of the artist, all rights reserved

Don't these two look as soft as the real thing?  While mediums such as sculpture and photography do provide the opportunity to create exactitude in visual likenesses, I have a fondness for textile art. It's used in creating things that are a comfort to body and mind (here's a great example from a previous post).  Even when the art is purely decorative, the tactile response remains, which is a fancy way of saying "I want to pet that."  And I want to pet these two portraits commissioned from Sharon of Leicester, England.  At BoxRoomBazaar, her Etsy shop, Sharon offers not only many sweet animal works for anyone's delight, but a cheerful take on your own pet if you like.

wordless wednesday

with biggest thanks to candace and somairle

dogs underfoot: mosaics

By Daderot (Own work) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons

The elegant hunt scene above is a Roman work from Homs, Syria dating circa 450-462 AD.  It's all too easy to see the same dog mosaics over and over and over again when doing online research, so I was happy to find this website with photos of examples I'd never seen.  Some show in vivid detail how the hunt plays out, which makes me muse afresh on what earlier civilizations found acceptable.  I personally would find it hard to enjoy my pork-stuffed dormice over a mosaic of a hare getting its head snapped off, but I suppose I am a soft barbarian.
Here's the link to the dogs again.
Here's some Roman recipes, with a different prep for dormice.
The website has some modern cat mosaics you may enjoy.

happy 4th with some more presidential pups

fdr and fala. thanks wikimedia commons (pd)

President Truman's puppy Feller was a darling.  Rob Roy Coolidge looked adorable in a flowery hat. And anyone who would name his pair of beagles Him and Her ... well, I have to hand it to Lyndon B. Johnson's sense of humor.  Check out this slideshow on Presidential dogs past and present.
Over here at this BuzzFeed article from 2013 there's even more photos - and again, I'm handing it to LBJ for the most relaxed and charming shots.
Remember the furry family members will probably enjoy the 4th best under the bed, so get them inside!  And meanwhile, enjoy the holiday, all!

glorious plumage

courtesy wikimedia commons (PD)

Yes, I mean both sets of plumage, as Massimo Stanzione has celebrated them in this 1635 portrait of a "Woman in Neapolitan Costume."  Look, here's a page on Italian chickens. I think her friend is an Ancona.  How about you?

the wind in your ears. and your hat.

thanks wikimedia commons (PD US)

If only Nicolas de Largilliere (French, 1756-1846) could have found an excuse to portray the spaniel's long black ears sticking straight out to either side.  Then this 1703 portrait of "La Belle Strasbourgeoise" (The Beautiful Woman of Strasbourg) would have made my entire week.  Here's typically Rococo-era relish for portraying fabrics and fashion, not least that fabulously trendy hat.  Coy head tilts?  Check.  Please do notice, too, how well her gathered sleeves play off against the dog's curly ears.  Another great example of dog as fashion accessory.