PERFORMING DOG - PRINT FOR CHILDREN

[Juvenile]: Munito, étonnant ses spectateurs. [Paris] [Au Cabinet d'Illusions, Cour des Fontaines] [c.1817].   

"In January 1817, Mr. Castelli d'Orino of Milan brought to Paris a dog whose extraordinary talents brought general admiration. He understands Italian, German and French, he knows colours, guesses cards, plays dominoes, reads all the writing and copies all the words presented to him; finally, addition, subtraction, multiplication are games for him. Lazy youngsters who don't want to learn, would you like to stay less educated than a dog of eighteen months?" (text below image).

Details

Hand-coloured engraving with etching, 34.7 cms. x 30.2 cms. within platemarks, pasted at an early stage onto board, 35.4 cms. x 31.1 cms. Slight spotting and soiling, rumpling at top left of print and a scratch in text below image at bottom right, imprint details have been almost entirely scratched out. 

Bibliography:

OCLC and CCFr show one institutional location (Bibliothèque Nationale). A copy with differences to the colouring found in ours was owned by the magician and actor Ricky Jay (1946-2018) (Potter and Potter Auctions, Chicago, February 25 2023, lot 260).