squirrel: don't leave home without one

Courtesy of the rijkmuseum - http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.48328  
Purchased with the support of the F.G. Waller-Fonds - PD

The date is 1795, and this stylish young Parisian lady (helpfully noted as "unmarried") is taking the air in this scene from a series of French fashion plates.  Light and fresh, her gown keeps her unhampered from enjoyment of the natural world around her, not least the company of her pet squirrel.

dog silk

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1896
www.metmuseum.org (OASC)

Imagine a whole dress of this material:  gray silk puppies for yards and yards.  This textile dates from Edo-era Japan, particularly the 18th or 19th century, which I think is borne out in the appealing netsuke-like roundness of their heads and bodies.  The Edo period saw a number of new artistic influences in Japanese culture combined with tight social and class rules, some of which regarded what you could and couldn't wear in the way of luxury fabrics.  I'm betting this is one of the results: if you're not allowed to wear richly patterned brocades, but you can wear woven silk, of course you're going to encourage attractive and clever patterns.

finery for friday: black goes with everything

thanks wikimedia commons (PD:US)

Do you really want to go out?  You got all dressed up, and all those people are expecting you to show up and make chat and nibble politely on whatever without putting a foot wrong or getting anything stuck in your teeth.  How tiresome.  And how beautiful your black cat looks lolling against the fresh lettuce green of your dress.  Who would appreciate you more?
That's the sense of scene I get looking at The Green Dress (1890-99) by American artist John White Alexander.  A socially prominent portrait and decorative painter, Alexander painted elements of the Library of Congress in Washington D.C., the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, to name a few.  This on the other hand is a private and gentle figure study.  Those green folds are bright and crisp, especially playing off the soft dark fur of the cat.  A contented sigh of a canvas.

a different sort of fox collar

Given by Messrs Harrods Ltdhttp://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O120111/suit-unknown/

Or a jackal collar, but that's not as catchy.  This goes a bit outside the usual pet perimeters, but I couldn't resist showing you this find from the Victoria & Albert Museum.  This is a linen coat with a velvet collar embroidered in metal thread, made in Britain circa 1800-1820.  As you might imagine from its lighter, cooler textile and the word HUNT at the end, this was worn while hunting in a hot climate.  I dislike the idea of fox hunts, so I'll hope this coat is so gently worn because all the foxes were too fast, too smart, and just out of sight.