A fine example of dogs in the decorative arts


Posted on May 27, 2009
By Julia Szabo

In the decorative-art world, dogs turn up in many fine examples of antique furniture and accessories. One dealer that appreciates dog imagery is New York City's Carlton Hobbs. 

Located in the Former Vanderbilt mansion in Manhattan's Carnegie Hill, Carlton Hobbs sells antiques to the world's top interior designers, whose clients include the likes of Madonna, Elton John, and Mick Jagger. And living on the premises, amid the pedigreed antiques and shimmering chandeliers, is a quartet of mutt mascots, all rescued and owned by the gallery's managing director Stefanie Rinza.

Currently on display at Carlton Hobbs, among other treasures, is a wall applique painted with Chinoiserie vignettes on glass. This splendid item, encircled in a gilded frame and made in England circa 1890, depicts three men expressing surprise at the sight of a large dog walking with a smaller dog on his back. The larger dog appears to be a sturdy cousin of the Saint Bernard, while his passenger is a much smaller dog of indeterminate breed, who is portrayed sitting up and begging.


 

The sweet scene of one dog helping another calls to mind one of FetchDog's Top 20 Dog Movies of All Time, the classic Disney film "The Incredible Journey," in which two dogs and a cat, lost in the wilderness, help each other as they find their way home.

The smaller dog happens to be a ringer for Jasper, one of the resident mutts, also a petite, white mixed-breed, and could conceivably be his ancestor, as Jasper was adopted from the Battersea Dog Home in London. The conveyor dog, meanwhile, resembles a cross between two other dogs in the Carlton Hobbs canine crew: Dinky, a 16-year-old Chow Chow mix with her own Facebook fan page, and Charlie, a 12-year-old hound mix. The fourth member of the pack is a white poodle named Tillie.


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