founded c. 2026
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FRIENDS FROM THE PAST

Antique Canine Engravings and Fine Dog Art

Over two Centuries of
Dog Art

How prints were made through the ages. 

Study The Five Methods arrow_downward Framing Advice
Friends From The Past physical collection archive with over 500 prints
Physical Collection Archive Over 500 Prints in the Vault
verifiedOriginal prINTS from the 1740's to 1940's
Section I • Printmaking Methodologies

Five Historical Printmaking Disciplines

Before digital methods or modern photo processes arrived, printers formed canine portraits by hand. Each era brought specific chemical washes, carved wood blocks, and heavy rolling beds.

1 1740 to 1820 • Early Georgian

Copperplate Intaglio

Featured plate: "Fig 30. Irish Hound" from a naturalist companion

Run your thumb across the margins. You can feel the ridge where heavy boxwood and copper met wet rag paper. Engravers carved backwards directly into metal. One slip ruined a month of labor. The ink sits raised on the surface, sharp enough to snag a fingernail two hundred years later.

How to tell in person

Look along the edges for the plate mark. A modern photo reproduction is flat. An original copper strike has an undeniable indented rectangular ditch stamped into the paper.

Copperplate engraving Irish Hound Fig 30
Original plate: Irish Hound (circa 1790)
Steel plate engraving of dog head by Harrison Weir 1867
Harrison Weir, A Dog's Head (steel engraving, 1867)
2 1840 to 1885 • Mid-Victorian Era

Steel-Plate Engraving

Featured plate: Harrison Weir study of canine expression (1867)

Copper was soft. It wore down after a few hundred impressions, losing crispness. Hardened steel changed everything. Suddenly artists cut razor fine hatching grooves inside a single millimeter. Notice the gleam on the hound's wet nose leather and the soft feathering along the jowls. Pure control.

How to tell in person

Because steel held up through vast press runs, these prints reached households through weekly journals. They survive in remarkably crisp condition with microscopic parallel hatching lines.

3 1870 to 1895 • Bewick Tradition

End-Grain Boxwood Relief

Featured plate: The Fox Hound from an estate monograph

Woodblock carvers worked against stubborn crosscut boxwood. It is slow, punishing work. Everything white was gouged away by hand from the end-grain block, leaving fragile slivers of black wood standing. You can tell a block print instantly by the solid, velvety blacks. No gray mid-tones, just honest ink and stark paper.

Physical Identification Clues

Look closely at the white highlights carved through the hound's coat. Gouged gouge-stops and solid black ink density distinguish true end-grain wood engraving from metal printing.

The Fox Hound boxwood relief woodcut
Original relief block: The Fox Hound (circa 1888)
Landseer Picture Book of Dogs chromolithograph cover
Landseer Picture Book of Dogs (1885)
Irish Water Spaniel Captain Cassell Chromolithograph
Irish Water Spaniel Captain (1890)
Original Bavarian Solnhofen Multi-Stone Chromolithographs
4 1885 to 1905 • Color Stones

Solnhofen Multi-Stone Lithography

Featured plates: Landseer Picture Book of Dogs and Irish Water Spaniel Captain

Planographic Bavarian limestone and greasy litho inks produced mellow layered colors without mechanical halftone grids. Printers ground massive limestone slabs smooth, then painted separate layers. Up to twelve individual stones went into a single canine portrait: warm fawn, deep umber, rich moss, and slate blue.

How to tell in person

Under a 10x magnifying glass, you will discover irregular crayon stipples and overlapping mineral washes. There are no rosette halftone dots found in 20th century offset reprints.

5 1920 to 1938 • Interwar Studios

Dry Litho Crayon, Charcoal, and Conté

Featured studies: Lucy Dawson's terrier Mac and Cook's Doberman pastel

By the 1920s, formal staged sporting portraits yielded to genuine companionship. Studio masters sketched from life with charcoal grain and dry litho crayon, building swift form on oatmeal and buff rag paper. White chalk highlights catch the bridge of the nose and the alert gleam of an eyelid.

Physical Identification Clues

Look for soft charcoal grain resting in the fibrous tooth of oatmeal paper. White chalk highlights sit atop the tone rather than being knocked out of a printed plate.

Lucy Dawson terrier Mac sketch
Lucy Dawson • Mac (1936)
Gladys Emerson Cook Doberman study
Gladys Emerson Cook • Doberman
Section II • The Master Draughtsmen

Masters of Canine Art & Portraiture

Discover the 19th- and early 20th-century draughtsmen who drew beloved family companions, terriers, and noble hounds.

Sir Edwin Landseer Jack in Office canine master study Royal Academician

Sir Edwin Landseer

1802 to 1873, London and Highlands

Queen Victoria celebrated his monumental stags, but Landseer was unmatched in canine narrative. In Jack in Office, hungry mongrels circle an indifferent butcher boy terrier. Notice the posture of each dog, capturing exact social tensions without melodrama.

Jack in Office palette
Harrison Weir A Dog's Head steel engraving Kennel Club Pioneer

Harrison Weir

1824 to 1906, Kent Field Naturalist

Weir was a dedicated naturalist whose burin work remains benchmark steel craft. In A Dog's Head (1867), he captured the quiet intelligence of a retriever carrying a cane through marsh reeds, cutting hundreds of micro-lines to render wet fur.

A Dog's Head (1867) auto_stories
Lucy Mac Dawson terrier study Mayfair Studio

Lucy "Mac" Dawson

1870 to 1954, London Studio

Dawson brought drawing room intimacy to dog illustration. Working on textured buff paper with black conté and white chalk, she drew terriers while they scrambled across her studio rug. Her wire-haired companion Mac became beloved for its expressive warmth.

Mac Terrier Study brush
RH Moore Skye Terrier Monarch engraving Kennel Chronicler

R. H. Moore

Active 1880 to 1910, London

Moore served as principal illustrator for the authoritative Victorian kennel registries. In this plate of Mr. F. H. Vicary's champion prick-eared Skye Terrier Monarch, Moore preserved true 19th-century breed structure, free from exaggerated styling.

Skye Terrier Monarch history_edu
Scottish Terrier breed standard 1890 engraving Breed Standard

Breed Standards of 1890

Cassell & Kennel Gazette Archives

Early standard engravings served working breeders rather than modern show benches. In this Scottish Terrier study, notice the low center of gravity, heavy bone, and thick harsh coat built for working badger setts in wet Highland heather.

Scottish Terrier (1890) military_tech
Gladys Emerson Cook Doberman study pastel Studio Master

Gladys Emerson Cook

1899 to 1976, New York

Cook studied animal anatomy from life, rendering companion portraits with confident pastel and conté strokes on warm brown cardboard. Her Doberman study showcases remarkable control: velvety blacks, warm tan points, and intense focus in the eyes.

Doberman Study visibility
Section IV • Studio Commissions

Have Your Own Dog Drawn Into History

Our studio redraws your companion by hand, following the exact hatched burin linework and paper tones of 19th-century master engravings.

Transform My Dog Browse Etsy Prints