seal of approval

2100 BC, Mesopotamia: it's another day at the brickworks, and you've just impressed the official stamp on a fresh, moist, kiln-bound brick.  So who let the dog in?  To learn a little more, here's the brick's page at the British Museum.

drink to the dogs

Gift of Ernest Brummer, 1957 www.metmuseum.org

Perhaps this was a hunting cup: one hand on your weapons, one on your wine (so, one handled), and round the rim of the cup homage to the very dogs that were helping you chase down the prey.  This is a Greek skyphos, a deep cup, dating from the late 8th to the early 7th century B.C.   See where the handle's been placed?  Imagine holding that.  It probably helped stabilize the beverage.  Here's this item's original page at the Met if you would like to learn a little more.

well guarded

Purchase, The Charles Engelhard Foundation Gift, 1989
www.metmuseum.org

An evil spirit would think twice about bringing pestilence to your door once it came up against this mastiff.  Dating from the Near Eastern Kassites of the 2nd millennia B.C., this mighty fellow is a sterling example of the culture's ceramic mastery.  He's all of 16.3 x 14.17 inches, but his presence is much bigger; I fully expected to hear he was closer to 3 feet tall.  The record for this work at the Met states that he may have been a guardian figure representing Gula, the goddess of healing.  As intimidating as he appears, I remind myself that his ferocity would be a source of security against the unknown powers of disease sneaking through the door.  You want a brave friend for that; here he is.

grab a snack with this cat

image copyright and by kindest permission of the artist

Carol Ross of St. Louis, MO creates ceramics that are formed to be useful, and decorated to be delightful. Here's a bowl from her Etsy shop,The Clay Bungalow, with a bold, jolly cat and his intended menu (and birds and flowers thrown in for good measure). Look at his little feet and hands! Ross says of this piece, "There's that sly cat in the center of a stoneware, sgraffito carved bowl and he's ready to pounce on the scrambling mouse who's trying to make his getaway. Funny little birds and flowers encircle the cat. Mexican pottery influenced the design."
Look at the powerful raven on this mug.  Or this one, with a rabbit sketched in delicate strokes.  How about these lucky elephants?  Ross has a wonderful feel for different folkways in art.  Do visit and enjoy.

rat-choo

The Jack and Belle Linsky Collection, 1982
https://www.metmuseum.org

Because it's a snuffbox!  Get it?  (Groan.  Yes, I know.)
Not only is this Meissen porcelain snuffbox (Germany, c. 1745) gracefully made, but it has additional surprises inside and on the bottom.  Have a peek at the extra photos on its page at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

part of the family, 1st c bc

www.metmuseum.org
Purchase, Florence and Herbert Irving Gift, 1992

This terracotta relief shows a royal family taking their ease in the company of a few pets. There's mother, father, child, tubby dog having a howl (lower left, on a chain), ducks (lower right) and, partially missing, a monkey (just above the dog).  Expressive and even playful, this scene dates from India during the 1st century BC, and was found at the important Chandraketugarh archaeological site.  (Here is this object's page at the Metropolitan Museum of Art if you'd enjoy more source information.)  What sort of dog might have been around to pamper at that time and place? Sometimes the easiest answer makes the best sense: this looks to me like a well-fed Indian pariah dog, an ancient breed which would have been commonly available. 

running golden, 11th c

www.metmuseum.org Purchase, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 1964

This earthenware bowl dates from Fatimid-era (909-1171 CE) Egypt, a time and place of dynamic, luxuriant creation in Islamic art.  The Metropolitan Museum of Art identifies it at first quarter 11th century, yet the metallic luster painting of this running hare remains bright with barely any wear.  The exact significance of rabbits in this culture is not precise, but I did find this passage that proposes that rabbits, like mankind, seek to preserve their life. Rabbits do it by running away; humans do it by any means they can devise, including running away, and in that we're in fellowship with our fellow creatures.  Not a bad thing to remember as you dine from your gold-enhanced bowl.

happiest bowl ever

Queens College, Daghlian Collection of Chinese Art, photo by Brita Helgesen 01/24/14. (PD)

You know those mugs that are made with a creature waiting at the bottom?  You're drinking your coffee, tea, whatever, and then there's a frog peeking out at you two-thirds of the way down?  I wondered if this bowl from Six Dynasties China (220-568 CE) was the same kind of thing.  However, this bowl is only 2.25 inches high (and 4.375 inches wide), and he sticks up quite a bit.  Perhaps it was fun to eat around him.  I would throw pretzels in with him any day.
Six Dynasties China is particularly interesting; while it was a long period of political upheaval, it was also a time of cultures intermingling.  Longtime Museum readers know how much I love those for their fresh, fascinating results, and here's proof right here.  Traditional Chinese art standards were mixed with influences from Buddhism as it infiltrated popular thought, as well as from Central Asian ruling classes.  I love that this long-ago potter felt free as a result to make a perfect little dog and - bonus style points - extend his spots to the bowl around him.

bunny bowl, 12thc iran

Photo credit: Yale University Art Gallery.  Hobart and Edward Small Moore Memorial Collection, Gift of Mrs. William H. Moore

This bowl measures 3 3/8 x 7 3/16 in. (8.5 x 18.2 cm), a good size for soup or a salad, perhaps.  I wonder who owned this bowl back in 12th-century Iran, what they liked best to have served in it, and whether they asked specially to have such a graceful, vine-entwined rabbit painted on it.  It was made in Seljuk Period Iran (1038-1194), a period of prosperity and thriving arts (here's the Metropolitan Museum of Art on that).  I was also able to find a reference that suggests the rabbit/vine motif celebrates the goodness of life now and to come. 

this pug personifies monday

www.metmuseum.org (PD)
Lesley and Emma Sheafer , New York (until 1974; bequeathed to MMA)

This weekend I had a lovely overnight at Thornewood Castle.  Now it is Monday, and I think this Staffordshire ware pug from around 1720-40 encapsulates my feelings better than I can myself. 

rat radish

Acquired by William T. or Henry Walters, before 1899 (?) thewalters.org

The most elegant daikon you've ever seen, I'll bet. And its rodent rider is equally so.  All we know about the creator is that it was "Komarujo of Mikawachi," that is, a woman at the Mikawachi kilns on the island of Hirado in Japan.  Dated from the late 19th century, this piece shows the stylistic hallmarks of classic Hirado ware: the purest white porcelain with blue detailing.  By the time this was made, much Hirado ware was exported to eager buyers in the West.  Learn more about Hirado ware here.
I think this radish is the one known as ibuki-daikon (rat daikon), but it should have more of a "tail."  Still, knowing that makes this piece a little wittier.  It's a rat on a rat-radish!

a dog to guard your moisturizer

Walters Art Museum [Public domain, CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

This pyxis (lidded vessel) from Greece dates from the 4th century BC.  A pyxis was for the most part a useful little box such as I have in my own drawer, full of my earrings - but mine is absolutely not as fancy as this.  This could have held cosmetics, jewelry, anything small that you needed to grab.  Other areas of this box show a bull and a griffin, so I'm being flip and choosy to say this handsome fellow is guarding your facegoop - but his playful alertness makes me wake up a bit this morning, and a bit more ready to face the day.  The bull and griffin are beautiful too.  You can see them in the additional views of this piece at the Walters Art Museum's online collection.

good morning

Fletcher Fund, 1929 www.metmuseum.org

I think Etruscan askoi flasks are my new favorite things this week.  This askos (flask) dates from the 4th century B.C., and is a stylistic adaptation from earlier Greek bird-shape vases.  Askoi were based on the shape of plump full wineskins, which look a lot like a sitting bird, and askoi were popularly made in the shape of ducks (also nice and plump).  This rooster is an unusual variant.  Look at his perfectly modelled comb.
Here is an article on Etruscan bird-askoi from the Penn Museum, and another on Etruscan pottery overall from the Ancient History encyclopedia online.

a timeless rabbit

Gift of Charles Lang Freer F1904.203a-b (noncommercial use permitted, the Freer and Sackler Galleries)

I couldn't resist sharing this clever creature.  Any guesses when it was made?  I thought at first glance it was a contemporary craft item, but no - it's from the mid-17th century.  This streamlined, ear-enhanced bun is an incense holder bearing the namestamp of the master of Japanese Kyoto ware, Nonomura Ninsei (active 1646-1677).  Kyoto ware are high-fired ceramics and porcelain created in that city, glazed in enamels and made to be used domestically.  Ninsei, unlike domestic ceramic artists before him, used thick monochrome enamel glaze on stoneware, and signed his work.  Of particular note in his tea bowls is the neat skill of their feet, the round projections on which they sit; not something you see in this incense holder, but I am still impressed by those dainty rabbit paws.
Learn more about Nonomura Ninsei here.

cats on the tiles

Gift of Huldah Cail Lorimer
in memory of George Burford Lorimer (The Brooklyn Museum)

Cats on this tile, anyway: a pair of striped, speckled tigers in a stylized cage.  (Longtime readers will have guessed this is my every-so-often "I'm gonna let tigers slide into The Pet Museum because I wish I had one" post.)  The vivid color and strong individual graphic sense had me convinced this was a modern piece of craft.  It isn't.  This tile was made by some unnamed hand in the 19th century, who used the tile's back to incise a wacky elephant and clown scene.  You can see that alternate view at the Brooklyn Museum's record page here.

This tile so full of charm was a gift, as you see in the photo's credit line.  Huldah Cail Lorimer (later Huldah Mingledorff) presented this and a great many other 18th and 19th century folk ceramics to the Brooklyn Museum.  They'd belonged to her late husband, the writer and editor George Burford Lorimer, who in turn had inherited them from his father.  This is where the story gets interesting.  George Burford Lorimer's father was George Horace Lorimer (1867-1937), the editor under whose leadership the Saturday Evening Post reached readership in the millions.  Lorimer senior promoted the inclusion in the Post of such American greats as Jack London and Sinclair Lewis.  Then apparently he went home and collected folk art to relax.  I'm being flip there, but I don't feel I'm wrong.  It makes sense to me that a man who was trying to bring the best of American literary craft to everyone would be attracted to other authentic crafts.
Bonus:  if the link will work for you, here's a 1977 story in The New York Times about Huldah, the collection, and a dispute.

fanciest earthenware dog ever?

Wagnery Pottery. Dog, 19th century. Glazed earthenware Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Huldah Cail Lorimer in memory of George Burford Lorimer,
57.75.24. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.57.75.24.jpg)

This splendid creature was created in the 19th century by Wagnery Pottery, about which no information appears to exist any longer.

a snuffbox squirrel

the metropolitan museum of art - the jack and belle linsky collection, 1982

This porcelain treasure was designed and made at the Schrezheim factory in Schreizheim, Germany circa 1761-70.  The painter of this object, Johann Andreas Bechdolff, pops up reliably in searches for Schrezheim porcelain - here's a pug snuffbox he decorated.  He didn't only paint the tops of snuffboxes: at the Met page for this squirrel you can see the bottom and inside as well.  Why a critter on your powdered tobacco holder?  Think of it like a cell phone case: you personalize that with something you like, and carry it daily.  Same sort of thing.

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.

llama

art.thewalters.org gift of john bourne 2009 creative commons

So, so tempting to write "Llook at this llovely llama."  Oh well, I did.  This funny boy is a ceramic effigy from the Chancay culture of Peru, and he dates from 1000-1400 AD.  Ceramics were widely and plentifully made in this culture, and the black on white color scheme and tubby presence is also typical of the style.  Llamas are vital creatures in Peruvian life, and the creator of this beast clearly knew at least one - one very curious one by the look of it.

squirrels for your wall - agapanther tiles

image copyright and by kindest permission of the artist

This sweet and graceful tile has an Arts and Crafts, William Morris feel to it that I find irresistible. The squirrel's tail curves in a way that echoes the tree branch; the acorns and oak leaves are tender and tiny to fit the space.  I was not surprised (but oh so pleased) to see that its creator, Barbara Clark of Agapanther Tiles, likes this useful art because it allows us to integrate art into our lives on a daily basis.  That's a perfectly William Morris thing to feel and live and believe.  You'll enjoy looking at Barbara's Etsy shop, where loads more creatures have their own tiles.