who's watching whom?

Rare Book Division, The New York Public Library. "Three cats watching fish in an aquarium" The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1938. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/b992a521-9c85-2498-e040-e00a18063ad7

This illustration by Clyde A. Copson is from a children's book called "A Day with Bum; and the Smart Little Fish," by Morris Wilson, published in 1938.  I can't find anything about Copson or Wilson, but the record for this piece at the New York Public Library notes that the book was created under a Works Progress Administration program for new reading materials.

wordless vintage wednesday redux

another favorite from the museum collection

animated short: "dog gone" (happy!)

Imagine it: a school where everyone has, and brings, their dog.  Off they go on the bus to Rover Prep, and then they sit in pairs at each desk, waiting for the dog-shaped class bell to ring. 
But what if you have no dog?
But you used to have a dog?
And your well-meaning dad brings you a new puppy, but...

To get the rest of the funny, touching, hopeful story, you'll have to go here and watch the animated short "Dog Gone."  I do hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

a family on one ring!

www.themet.org  Purchase, Patricia A. Cotti and Friends of Egyptian Art Gifts, 2017

How funny I find it that after coming up for air after a holiday weekend of family travel, the first thing I should find is this Egyptian ring upon which an entire cat family perches neatly. From circa 1295-664 B.C. and made of faience, this ring probably celebrated a particular festival.  Have a look at its page over at the Met for more info.

vintage wordless wednesday redux

from the Museum collection
on back:
"Thanksgiving 1985"

how to prepare a fine dog kennel, 1400s

Yesterday I showed you a beautiful illustration of a dog kennel from a Book of the Hunt.  Today I have a passage from The Master of Game, the English translation of that book, created sometime between 1406 and 1413 by Edward of Norwich, 2nd Duke of York.  This passage is about kennels, too.
* * *
CHAPTER XX
HOW THE KENNEL FOR THE HOUNDS AND THE
COUPLES FOR THE RACHES AND THE ROPES
FOR THE LYMER SHOULD BE MADE
The hounds' kennel should be ten fathoms in length and five in breadth, if there be many hounds. And there should be one door in front and one behind, and a fair green, where the sun shineth all day from morning till eve, and that green should be closed about with a paling or with a wall of earth or of stone of the same length and breadth as the hounds' kennel is. And the hinder door of the kennel should always be open so that the hounds may go out to play when they like, for it is a great liking to the hounds when they may go in and out at their pleasure, for the mange comes to them later. (1)   In the kennel should be pitched small stones wrapped about with straw of the hounds' litter, unto the number of six stones, that the hounds might piss against them. Also a kennel should have a gutter or two whereby all the piss of the hounds and all the other water may run out that none remains in the kennel. The kennel should also be in a low house, and not in a solere (an upper chamber), but there should be a loft above, so that it might be warmer in winter and cooler in summer, and always by night and by day I would that some child lie or be in the kennel with the hounds to keep them from fighting. Also in the kennel should be a chimney to warm the hounds when they are cold or when they are wet with rain or from passing and swimming over rivers. And also he should be taught to spin horse hair to make couples for the hounds, which should be made of a horse tail or a mare's tail, for they are best and last longer than if they were of hemp or of wool. And the length of the hounds' couples between the hounds should be a foot, and the rope of a limer three fathoms and a half, be he ever so wise a limer it sufficeth. The which rope should be made of leather of a horse skin well tawed.

(1.) They are not likely to get the mange so soon.

-- Edward, of Norwich, 2d Duke of York, 1373?-1415. The Master of Game: the Oldest English Book On Hunting. London: Chatto & Windus, 1919. 125-6.

a dog kennel, c 1440

Unknown
A Hunter Attending to Kenneled Dogs, about 1430 - 1440,
Tempera colors, gold paint, silver paint, and gold leaf on parchment
Leaf: 26.4 × 18.4 cm (10 3/8 × 7 1/4 in.)
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

This is an illustration from a manuscript of Livre de la Chasse (Book of the Hunt) created in Brittany circa 1430-1440.  The original "Book of the Hunt" was written in the late 1380's by Gaston III, Count of Foix, reckoned to be one of the greatest huntsmen of his day.  This page shows a hunter attending to kenneled dogs.  I have not found a translation of it, but I do know that the Livre de la Chasse was translated into English by Edward of Norwich, the 2nd Duke of York.  He titled his translation The Master of Game, and tomorrow I'll show you a short passage from it about dog kennels.

landor loses his dog for a minute

thanks british library

A friend of Walter Savage Landor's writes of an exciting few hours during which his dog Pomero was missing, presumed lost...
* * *
Once, when I was staying with him, Pomero was missing for a few hours. We had gone out for a walk to Lansdowne Crescent, . . . when we came back Pomero, who had accompanied us for a short time, and had then turned as we supposed to go home, was not to be found. I shall never forget the padrone's mingled rage and despair. He would not eat any dinner, and I remember how that it was a dinner of turbot and stewed hare, which he himself had seasoned and prepared with wine, etc., in the little sitting-room; for he was a good cook in that way and to that extent. And both of these were favorite dishes with him. But he would not eat, and sat in his high-backed chair, which was not an easy one, or stamped about the room in a state of stormy sorrow, like nothing I had ever seen before, though I saw more than one like tempest afterwards. Now he was sure the dog was murdered, and he should never see him again; some scoundrel had murdered him out of spite or cruelty, or to make a few pounds by him stuffed, and there was no use in thinking more about him; then he would go out and scour all Bath for him; then he would offer rewards—wild rewards—a hundred pounds—his whole fortune—if any one would bring him back alive; after which he would give way to his grief and indignation again, and, by way of turning the knife in his wound, would detail every circumstance of the dog's being kidnapped, struck, pelted with stones, and tortured in some stable or cellar, and finally killed outright, as if he had been present at the scene. But in a short time, after the whole city had been put into an uproar, and several worthy people made exceedingly unhappy, the little fellow was brought back as pert and vociferous as ever; and yelped out mea culpa on his master's knee, in between the mingled scolding and caressing with which he was received.

—Mrs. E. Lynn Linton {Fraser's Magazine, July, 1870).  Excerpted in Mason, Edward T. 1847-1911. Personal Traits of British Authors. v. 1. New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1885. pp. 272-3.

vintage wordless wednesday redux

from the museum's collection, and a personal favorite!

dog on the bank

www.mfa.org Leonard A. Lauder Collection of Japanese Postcards

This luminous, immediate little lithograph postcard was created in late Meiji-era Japan by an unknown artist.  (The Meiji era dated from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912.)  You can see the object's page at the Boston MFA here.

a greek dog on egyptian soil

www.mfa.org Egypt Exploration Fund by subscription

This terracotta dog is all of 1 15/16" x 1 5/8", but the roughness of his modeling gives him a big presence.  Isn't it amazing how a few well-placed pushes and pulls on a lump of clay create something that's unmistakably a dog? 
He lives at the Boston MFA, where they don't have a date of manufacture listed for him, but they know where he was found (by the great Egyptologist Flinders Petrie, no less).  He's from Naukratis, which was a Greek trading post in the Nile Delta established in the 7th century BC.  The British Museum has a research project about Naukratis; you can read more about it here.  If you search the research project catalog for "dog" you'll see this guy and a number of his fellows pop up, as the project worked with museum collections worldwide.  I learned there that he might be a representation of Sirius the Dog Star, whose rising happened around the yearly flooding of the Nile.

vintage wordless wednesday redux

from the museum collection

walter savage landor, not savage at all

thanks british library flicker (PD)

In 1844 the English poet Walter Savage Landor - by all accounts a man tender to children and animals, giving the lie to his name - received the gift of a white Pomeranian dog.  He named the dog "Pomero," and the two became inseparable.  Pomero makes many charming appearances in Landor's letters, and I'll share a few soon.  Today, though, I'll share this poem in which Landor compares his friend to the Dog-Star (Sirius), and guess who wins in his eyes?

On the Dog-Star
I hold it unlawful
To question the awful
Appointments of Heaven, or hazard a doubt;
But needs I must say,
Heaven's Dog had its day,
And Pomero beats the said Dog out and out.

Landor, Walter Savage, and J. B. Sidgwick. The shorter poems of Walter Savage Landor. Cambridge University Press, 1946. p. 50.

the official's other dog!

By Karen Green (IMG_6422) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)],
via Wikimedia Commons

Here's the companion dog to yesterday's, as found on a wall at the tomb of Sarenput I.  He's a she, and she's lactating - I wonder if there's ever been any tomb reliefs of tiny Egyptian puppies?

the official's dog, 12th dynasty

By Karen Green (IMG_6415) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)],
via Wikimedia Commons

Sarenput I was an official in 12th-dynasty Egypt under Pharaoh Senusret I (1971-1926 BC.  That's okay, I hadn't heard of that pharaoh either).  His tomb in the Qubbet el-Hawa complex contains several reliefs of his relatives -  and his dogs, of whom we see one here.  Over at the left you can see the snout of another pup.  I'll show you that one tomorrow - it's so enjoyable it deserves a post all its own!

vintage wordless wednesday redux

from the Museum collection, a mid60s halloween photobomb