Life-Size Austrian Terracotta Pug Dog With Glass Eyes, 19th Century

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Life-Size Austrian Terracotta Pug Dog with Glass Eyes, 19th Century

Every room needs one resident who never misbehaves. This wonderfully … Read more Life-Size Austrian Terracotta Pug Dog with Glass Eyes, 19th Century

Every room needs one resident who never misbehaves. This wonderfully lifelike Austrian terracotta pug has been sitting patiently since about 1880–1900, glass eyes bright, head cocked just slightly, red studded collar buckled on, waiting for someone to notice him — and everyone does. He is essentially life size at over sixteen inches, hand-painted in soft fawns and greys with a black mask, and modeled with the cropped ears and worried wrinkles of the Victorian pug.

Dogs like this were made in the Austro-Hungarian workshops of the late nineteenth century, descendants of the famous Meissen porcelain pugs of the 1740s, and the big life-size examples are the ones collectors chase. Set him by a hearth, at the foot of a bookcase, on a console in the entry where he can greet arrivals, or in the library where he will supervise quietly. The cold-painted surface has the gentle wear of his century and a half, which is exactly as it should be.

Height: 16¼ inches (41.3 cm); width 14½ inches; depth 8 inches. Good antique condition with scattered paint losses at the paw edges and base rim, honest to the unfired decoration. See less