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Perhaps you've seen them at your grandmother's house: a pair of ornate earthenware dogs with handpainted faces, surveying the living room from the fireplace mantel. Or maybe you've encountered them in the decorative arts wing of a museum, or spotted them while antiquing. In any case, odds are you've come across Staffordshire dogs before. These figurines first became popular in the Victorian era and remain so ubiquitious that they were deemed "ornamental clichés" by writer Teleri Lloyd-Jones.
Many cultural heritage institutions have Staffordshire figures or art inspired by them in their collection. This site collates digital surrogates of such resources to tell the story of Staffordshire dogs (also known as "wally dugs") and their enduring cultural impact. It is organized into four thematic pages: Pairs, which shows classic sets of two dogs; Objects, which shows other decorative and functional objects with dog imagery; Context, which explains the origins of Staffordshire dog figurines; and Impact, which shows their reverberations throughout art since the Victorian era. The full collecton can be viewed on the Browse page, and the Metadata page describes the fields used to catalog the items.
Site References
Borrelli-Persson, L. (2016, June 2). The perfect pet? Gucci gets behind the Staffordshire dog. Vogue. https://www.vogue.com/article/gucci-resort-2017-staffordshire-dog
Harding, A. & Harding, N. (2006). Victorian Staffordshire Dogs. Schiffer Publishing Ltd.
Hass, N. (2021, August 19). The ceramists crafting miniature menageries. The New York Times Style Magazine. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/19/t-magazine/ceramic-animal-figurines.html
Lloyd-Jones, T. (2010, November/December). Interview with Rob Ryan. Crafts, 227, 48.
Kenny, A. (1997). Staffordshire Spaniels: A Collector's Guide to History, Styles, and Values. Schiffer Publishing, Ltd.
Pope, C. M. (1990). A-Z of Staffordshire Dogs: A Potted History. Antique Collectors' Club Ltd.
Solicari, S. (2011). From cottage to kitsch: The enduring appeal of the Staffordshire figure. The Journal of Decorative Arts Society 1850-the Present, 35, 134-147. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41809441