happy 2016 from the pet museum

image courtesy Vintage Holiday Crafts.com

Dear friends,

Thank you for your visits all year! I enjoyed finding things to bring you, and look forward to many more good posts in 2016.

Give all your pets a scratch and a treat from me, and to you I send every warm wish for joy and health...of which your pets are a large part!

Happy New Year!

Love, Curator

home and away, and guess which one wins

thanks reusableart.com (PD)

I couldn't use this poem in my upcoming eBook - it didn't quite fit anywhere - but it's far too winsome and funny not to share.  The speaker is in either Australia or Tasmania, and not being a good sport.  

As the year draws to a close, I thought this was a great piece to reflect on where you are and where you'd like to be.  Make what friends you can with the first, and make plans for the second!  

Thou and I.

(From Stony Creek.)

THOU art in happy England,
With peace, content, and joy;
And there no poisonous reptiles
Thy comfort can destroy;
No hissing sound the startled ear
With fear of death awakes  -
Thou art in happy England,
I, in the land of snakes.

About thy household duties
Serenely thou canst go;
No fear of fierce tarantulas
Or scorpion brings thee woe;
And day by day flows calmly on,
And sleep wings through the night-
Thou art in happy England,
I, where mosquitoes bite.

Thou hast the trusty faithful dog,
The quiet harmless cat,
But I the fierce Tasmanian D ---, (Devil.  --curator)
Opposum, and wombat;
Familiar objects greet thy sight,
Here all is strange and new
Thou art in happy England,
I, with the kangaroo.

Thou hast the blithe canary,
The robin chirps to thee:
While here the magpies chatter,
And rail from every tree;
Bright parrots glint beneath the sun,
And shriek their hideous song
Thou art in happy England,
I, wattle-birds among.

Than canst recline in any place,
And watch the moments pass:
Here briars and prickles fill the clothes
While lying on the grass;
They stick into the flesh, and sting
Like gnat, or wasp, or bee -
But thou in happy England
From all such plagues art free.

Hurrah for happy England!
For all the folk at home!
From hill and dale resounds the cry
No matter where we roam.
Hare scenes of beauty greet the sight,
The balmy air is sweet;
But still I sigh for England,
Where thou and I shall meet.

J. A. LANGFORD : On Sea and Shore.  In Langbridge, Frederick, 1849-1922. Poets At Play: a Handbook of Humorous Recitations. Vol. 2. London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1888. 122-123.  (PD in the US.)

bark bark

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 1940. www.metmuseum.org. OASC 

He's only 3000 years old.  This beautiful toy dog was carved from ivory during the 18th Dynasty of Egypt's New Kingdom (around 1390-1353 B.C.), and the handle on his chest makes his mouth open and shut.  Howard Carter owned him once; what lucky long-ago child played with him before that?  The Egyptian word for dog was "iwiw," which sounds like a bark. Imagine making his jaw flap and saying "Iwiw, iwiw."

the tiger on the table

• Woman lying under a kotatsu with a cat. RP-P-1958-495 Rijksmuseum: J.A. Bierens de Haan Bequest, Amsterdam (PD)

Here's a cold day in 1832 (at least that's when this print was made).  Might as well wear whatever's comfy, break out a book and stay under the kotatsu, the blanket-covered framework that hides a small heat source.  Oh look, the cat found the warmest spot in the room.

This print by Utagawa Kuniyoshi is part of a series referring to a classic Chinese novel, Suikoden or Water Margin, which recounts the adventures of 108 outlaws.  According to the Rijkmuseum our lounging pipe-smoking beauty and her friend refer to one particular outlaw, Wu Sung, who killed a tiger with his bare hands.  Guess who's meant to be the tiger.  I wouldn't worry about him.

merry christmas to all

great thanks to thegraphicsfairy.com (PD)

"Through good and ill

be cheerful still."

Easy to do when I think of all my kind, lovely Pet Museum patrons.

Happiest of Holidays to you 
and to all creatures in your house!

Much love, 

your friendly Curator

the last fat cat, i promise

statens museum for kunst/national gallery of denmark, inventory #KKS6916.  (PD)

I ate rum-soaked butter cake for breakfast, so. . . 

Now, I can't be the only one who has fellow-feeling for the glutton cat in Niels Skovgaard's illustration.  The cheerful soul poking him is the parson, whom the story describes as carrying a crooked staff.  Parsons seem to pop up in the same broad-brimmed hat and sensible outwear whenever one spots them in art and literature, so that was easy.

the fat cat observes hors d'oeuvres

statens museum for kunst/national gallery of denmark, inventory #KKS6914.  (PD)

Holiday snacking, right?  No wonder I'm on a Niels Skovgaard Fat Cat (Tykke Kat) kick.  Here the Cat is scoping out a group of girls (he eats them) and a flock of birds (he eats them).  You get the theme.  Don't be too upset.  Everyone gets out of the Cat's tum in the end, none the worse for wear, and very little wear to their "host."  I have one more of these I want to share this week.  Stay tuned!  Don't you like how deft and lyrical Skovgaard's lines are?  These are pen and ink sketches, whipped out with hardly a misstep.

a fat danish cat, 1911

statens museum for kunst/national gallery of denmark, inventory #KKS6920.  (PD)

Isn't he something?  He's "Den tykke kat" (The thick [fat] cat), and his story was illustrated in 1911 by Danish artist Niels Skovgaard (1858-1938).  It's an old folktale of a cat with bad manners and big appetite, and how he learns the error of his ways.  Skovgaard's images for this are droll, and perfect for this week of holiday eating.  
The penciled note reads "Over indholdsfortegnelsen" - "over the table of contents."
Skovgaard was not only known for illustrative work, but for naturalist painting and perhaps most for his sculpture.