string!

Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, www.nga.gov (PD)

This delicate portrait by Joseph Goodhue Chandler (American, 1813-84) dates from c. 1836-38.  He had only just embarked on his painting career, and most of his early work is of family members.  Perhaps this brown-eyed "Girl With a Kitten" is one of these relations.  It's interesting to me how well modeled her face is compared to the flattened treatment of her dress and her pose; I also note the fine spray of greenery outside the window, which to me reflects all the tender growing this young lady has ahead.  As sweet as she looks, she's got a fierce companion:

Would you look at that face?  What a mighty hunter.  

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.

a kitten muses on a puppy

It's been a great while since I featured anything by that jolly celebrant of all things cat and kitten, Oliver Herford.  Here is a selection from his book The Kitten's Garden of Verses, in which the creature known as a Puppy is considered:

The Puppy
The Puppy cannot mew or talk,
He has a funny kind of walk,
His tail is difficult to wag
And that's what makes him walk zigzag.

He is the Kitten of a Dog,
From morn till night he's all agog —
Forever seeking something new
That' s good but isn't meant to chew.

He romps about the Tulip bed,
And chews the Flowers white and red,
And when the Gardener comes to see
He's sure to blame mamma or me.

One game that cannot ever fail
To please him is to chase his tail—
(To catch one's tail, 'twixt me and you,
Is not an easy thing to do.)

If he has not a pretty face
The Puppy's heart is in its place.
I'm sorry he must grow into
A Horrid, Noisy Dog, aren't you?

-- Herford, Oliver, 1863-1935. The Kitten's Garden of Verses. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1911. 39-40.

wordless vintage wednesday redux

another rerun from the collection

vintage wordless wednesday

thanks ampersand

cat ads of the world

(PD)

So you've seen that hilarious German ad for Netto Marken-Discount grocery stores, yes?  The one that rolls in all the cat memes?  Excellent.  That sent me on a kick...

• to this Japanese ad featuring a most unexpected, if pleasant, result of chewing refreshing gum
• and another from Japan in which "E-Neko" urges you to conserve energy
• these two British milk ads, which are a titch adversarial (and also very funny)
• Audi thought it could get away without using cats. Wrong
• Sweden's Folksam insurance company believes cats can fly
• Best chocolate biscuits ever.

early christmas cards

The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection, The New York Public Library. Christmas cards depicting young girls with cats, chicken, and dolls. Retrieved from http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47db-c102-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

These are publisher's proofs found in the collection of the New York Public Library.  The publisher, Louis Prang (American; 1824-1909) was the head of the Boston-based firm Louis Prang & Co.; he is credited with being the first publisher of Christmas cards.  No date available on these, but they're considered as being typically Victorian in their idealized portrayal of these flaxen-haired little girls with dolls and pets.  Bet you'd never seen a Christmas chicken before!  

If these were early Christmas cards, no wonder we don't see all the holiday stuff we're used to: holly, Santa, trees, red and green.  I think that had yet to come as expected imagery.  Still pretty cute and full of the giving spirit of the season.

1929: a sweet sketch of a kitten's slumber

By Internet Archive Book Images [No restrictions], via Wikimedia Commons

This essence of catnap is found on page 72 of "Alexander and Some Other Cats," a 1929 compilation by the New England artist and photographer Sarah J. Eddy.  It's a sketch by her own hand, simple realism with sure technical skill.  Eddy was an alumna of the Art Students League of New York and the Philadelphia Academy of the Fine Arts, and the daughter of an artistic family.  This same family instilled in her a active political sensibility; Eddy was active in the anti-slavery, women's suffrage, and animal rights movements, and at her death (in 1945, at 93!) she was director of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

two ancient kittens

Kitten Coffin, 850-540 B.C.E. Bronze, animal remains (2 individuals), linen, 3 1/8 x 2 3/8 x 6 1/4 in. (8 x 6 x 15.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.369Ea-b. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum (Gavin Ashworth,er), 37.369Ea_Gavin_Ashworth_photograph.jpg)

Though I recently posted an ancient Egyptian cat piece, and wouldn't immediately offer you another, I ran across this item at the Brooklyn Museum website.  This is a bronze coffin for two kittens, the whole measuring only 3" by 2" by 6".  Made during the Late Period (roughly 712-332 BCE), the modeling shows the natural, more informal portrayal of that time.  Look at the one on the right with its big ears, slender tiny legs, wobbly baby body.  Who met the kittens of Egypt when they toddled into paradise?

three seasonings?

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

Kajita Hanko (Japanese, 1870-1919) didn't get enough time on the earth. If he'd lived longer we could have had more treats such as this 1905 illustration for a series based on The Tale of Genji:
"New Herbs (Wakana) II."  ("New Herbs Wakana I" is here.)  Most of his work seems to have been illustrations (kuchi-e) for Japanese romance novels and magazines.  The Tale of Genji is a gigantic and ancient Japanese classic, but it has a romantic feel.  Most illustrations for it stick to all its pretty and noble people in their robes sitting about their pavilions.  You can imagine how thrilled I was to find this close-up, intimate and unexpected take on one of my favorite books.

happy mother's day

thanks wikimedia commons (pd)

I have to hand it to Henriette Ronner-Knip (1821-1909): she's by far the most reliable source of momcat imagery.  This undated painting is known as "Aprole Douner," and I'm wondering if it's a mashup of the French "donner la parole," to hand over.  You see Mom looking very patient, if a little worldweary, while the kids investigate the strange new phenomenon called a bowl.  Yes, kittens, time to learn other sources of sustenance, because that's what good moms teach you to do.
Happy Mother's Day to all Museum friends, no matter the species of your little ones!

happy thanksgiving!

thanks vintageimages.org. PD

CAT'S THANKSGIVING DAY.
"Give me turkey for my dinner,"
Said a tabby cat.
"Before you get it, you'll be thinner,
Go and catch a rat,"
Said the cook, her pastry making,
Looking fierce and red,
And a heavy roller shaking
Over pussy's head.

Hark! her kittens' shriller mewing;
"Give us pie," said they,
To the cook, amid her stewing,
On Thanksgiving day.
"Pie, indeed! You idle creatures!
Who'd have thought of that?
Wash your paws and faces neater,
And go hunt! Scat! Scat!"

So they went and did their duty,
Diligent and still;
Exercise improved their beauty,
As it always will.
Useful work and early rising
Brought a merry mood ;
And they found the cook's advising,
Though severe, was good.

-- Cats and Kittens (Readings and Recitations No. 35), Edgar S. Werner, ed. (New York : Edgar S. Werner & Company, c1906), 38.

Happy Thanksgiving, Museum friends!

all the wiggly kittens

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Mrs. V. Everit Macy, 1923. www.metmuseum.org. OASC 

What are there, four of these little monsters?  They're perfect, tubby and squirmy, and their momcat clearly can't decide if she's proud or about to go crazy.  This piece of Banko ceramic ware dates from late 19th-c Japan.  Banko ware was developed in the 18th century and still thrives today in Yokkaichi (Mie Prefecture).  It was developed as a source of tea services.  It also lent itself well to other useful table goods and to decorative items, of which the family above is a winsome example.  The Banko Pottery Center is still in thriving business, as you'll see here.

holding hands

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, 1966. www.metmuseum.org. OASC

New York, circa 1844:  you've got a toddler to paint.  Good luck.  You can't keep her still, so how can you even keep her interest?  Throw in another toddler, of a different species.  Sketch fast.
The result?  This oil on canvas of young Emma Homan by the English-American portraitist John Bradley (active 1832-47, life dates unknown).  Being posed next to a potted rose is cute enough, but to throw a kitten in the bush and have it holding paws - genius.  Cat-hance below.

Now here's something interesting:  this little girl grew up to be the botanical artist and writer Emma Homan Thayer.  How did that get started?  You can't help but wonder if it had anything to do with some pleasant hours being the center of attention with a kitty and a flowerbush.

oops, wordless vintage thursday

thanks seattle antiques co, i own this

theatre luck, courtesy of a black cat and a pug

In her autobiography, the English actress Mrs. Patrick Campbell (Beatrice Stella Tanner) tells how a dreamed black kitten and her her pug's open sympathy helped her confidence.  She was portraying the challenging role of "Paula" in The Second Mrs. Tanqueray, and in great need of self-assurance after a subpar rehearsal:

. . . When I went back to my rooms in Devonshire Street I slipped into bed in misery, knowing that everyone was disappointed in me,. . .Towards morning I fell asleep and had a childish dream. There was a door opposite my bed, and I dreamed it was pushed slowly open, and, up near the top, a little black kitten put in its head. I awoke laughing, and when my two children came into my bed, I told them about my lucky dream. And, indeed, if a black cat walking across the stage, entirely ruining a scene, can be regarded by all actors as a most lucky event, how much more should a black kitten poking its head high up through a door in a dream on the morning of a "first night" augur success.
One other sign of good fortune had also come to me from my pet dog. I had a pug at the time called "She," a devoted creature. One day—while I was studying the part of the play, where "Paula" bursts into a fit of weeping, I could get neither shape nor form into my sobbing. . . After much striving I thought of "breaking up" the sounds by a natural blowing of my nose. This so affected poor "She" that she howled and howled, and I could not stop her for quite a long time—I felt perhaps I might move a human audience. Then came the first night. I put my children to bed, leaving them in the care of the landlady. They had covered me with their hugs and kisses and wishes for success, and remembering the black kitten and the pug's tribute, I went down to the theatre with "She" in my arms, and my nerves strung up with that glorious sense of a battle to fight.

-- Campbell, P. (1922). My life and some letters. New York: Dodd, Mead. 93-94.

ode to an office kitten

From a book of poetry primarily having to do with life at Oxford:  the littlest member of the office staff gets their very own poem.  (Lucky them to HAVE an office kitten, I say.)

To the Office Kitten.
Little Kitten, badly bitten,
With a craze for exploration,
Full of wond'ring, ever blund'ring
Into some queer situation,
Well-nigh past all extrication;

How unstable! now the table,
Now the fire, attracts attention;
How uncertain! now the curtain,
Now the blind, requires ascension—
Now your tail needs circumvention.

Little Kitten, deeply smitten
With that tail's intrinsic merits,
How you race it, face it, chase it,
Always in the best of "sperrits,"
Eye as keen as any ferret's.

Now the fringes, tassels, hinges,
Cause you visible commotion;
Bits of paper make you caper;
Boots you gaze on with devotion—
Now you've upset all that lotion!

Little Kitten, e'en a Lytton
Could not word-paint your vagaries;
Now you're lapping, now you're tapping—
Taps as light as Mother Carey's
Chickens, or the steps of fairies.

Prince of friskers, take your whiskers
From the inkpot's black embraces,
Or, I fear, Sir, I shall hear, Sir,
That you've marked with inky traces
All the ladies' snowiest laces.

Little Kitten, true-born Briton,
Probing ev'ry nook and cranny,
Perspicacious and sagacious
As your own old feline granny—
Really you are quite uncanny!

Fluffy midget, how you fidget!
Ev'ry moment you grow bolder;
Saucy urchin, now you're perchin'
On the summit of my shoulder,
Toying with my pet penholder!
* * *
Little Kitten, I have written
Sev'ral stanzas all about you,
But in future you must suit your
Ways to mine, or I shall "clout" you—
Work's done better, Puss, without you!

-- from Pigott, M. T. (1893). Common-room carols: and other verses and parodies chiefly relating to Oxford. Oxford: Alden. 84-85.

the day has come: puss in print on kindle

thank you kib prestridge for your awesome cover

Yes, I know, you've heard me talk about it so long you thought it was never going to happen.  Me too.
Yet here it is, Puss in Print: A collection from thepetmuseum.com.
Available right the heck now on Kindle.  Soon to be available on Barnes&Noble NOOK.
This has been a learning experience and a half, and I don't think I'm done learning yet.  Should you pick up this little trifle, please know it comes with my warmest affection for all my Museum friends and the kind support you've given me all these years!
Big shout to the gang at Booknook, without whom this book would not ever had been prepared for all these brave new electronic platforms!

a kitten spools away the time

"British Library HMNTS 11651.m.3." public domain

Such a face! Have fun with that spool, baby. This image comes from Songs and Lyrics for Little Lips. Set to music by W. H. Cummings and others. Illustrated, etc. published in London in 1879.  As best I can tell, it's a book of pious children's songs.

"the patriotic kitten"

From a tiny children's book of kitten poetry published in the 1920's.  Not sure which war the poet had in mind at this time; perhaps she was looking back at WWI?

Our home is patriotic
As every home should be,
But I am just a kitten
So War don't int'rest me.

But looks are quite deceiving
(An adage, very true)
For I look patriotic—
I'm all red, white and blue.

He did it in the garden
With two new cans of paint,
And when I saw what happened
It almost made me faint.

My ears were painted reddish,
(The painting made me wail)
But he made me patriotic
When he put blue on my tail.

But when the family saw me
I knew I'd "make a hit."
They said "Our snow-white kitten
Has lived to 'do his bit.'"

-- Jacobs-Bond, Carrie, 1862-1946. Tales of Little Cats. [33d ed.] Chicago: P. F. Volland Co., sometime in the '20's.