Antiques dealer Carlton Hobbs gives new meaning to the term "dear old dog"


Posted on Aug 18, 2009
By Julia Szabo

Dear means precious as well as beloved, and the centuries-old wooden carved and lacquered sculpture of a reclining dog at the New York antiques gallery Carlton Hobbs is both.  

Created in Japan in the seventeenth century, the dog sculpture was acquired by Hobbs under the strict condition that it would not be resold.  "Our client who offered to sell it told us this was her lucky dog," reveals Stefanie Rinza, the gallery's managing director.  "We loved it, so we bought it and promised her that we would never sell it."

The ancient dog has a permanent home at the by-appointment gallery, located in the palatial former Vanderbilt mansion on Manhattan's Upper East Side.  He lives there together with four real-life rescued dogs, themselves much more beloved, including a white mutt named Jasper who frequently strikes the exact same pose as the sculpture.

"The dog sculpture has the most beautiful, gentle expression- just like Jasper," Rinza adds.  "I never get tired of it - every time I pass it, I fall in love with it all over again."

 


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