The Dalmatian and the Donkey

I do not have many 'outdoor' dog photographs in my collection and this one is particularly special. Here we have a Dalmatian sitting patiently on the back of a Donkey in the middle of a street in Angoulême, southwestern France.

The Dalmatian wears a deep studded leather collar which reminds me of the type of collar which is now fashionable for Lurchers and Greyhounds. The Dalmatian's ears are closely cropped, this practice was popular at the start of the 19th century. Ear Cropping was banned in England in 1899, but not in France until 1st of January 2010 so it is not surprising to find this photographic example of a cropped eared french Dalmatian.

1804 Engraving of a cropped eared Dalmatian by J. Scott

You can see how the photographer Henry Billard kept his subjects entertained during the photograph's exposure; the little girl holds a tray of food for the Donkey, which also keeps a just visible second Dalmatian standing still.

Robert Leighton writes in Dogs and All About Them in 1910 about the Dalmatian & Equine relationship:

[Originally] the Dalmatian was known as the Coach Dog, a name appropriately derived from his fondness for following a carriage, for living in and about the stable, and for accompanying his master's horses at exercise. He appears almost to prefer equine to human companionship, and he is as fond of being among horses as the Collie is of being in the midst of sheep.

It is no wonder the Dalmatian is so at ease with the Donkey. I have found some other examples of photographs taken by Henry Billard in 1893 of the market at Angoulême which also feature Donkeys, you can see them here.

 The reverse of the photograph showing the photographers details

Sources:

• Dogs And All About Them, Robert Leighton, 1910
• Wikipedia entry on Angoulême
• Wikipedia entry on Animal Cropping
• Examples of photographs by Henry Billard

Civil War Dalmatian

 This photograph is a first for this website - a tintype. What's a tintype? I hear you asking. A tintype (which can also be know as a melainotype or ferrotype) is a photograph made by creating a direct positive on a sheet of iron metal. A very underexposed negative image is produced on a thin iron plate, lacquered or otherwise darkened, and coated with a collodion photographic emulsion. Since in a negative image the darker portions of the subject appear lighter, or in this case more transparent, the dark background gives the resulting image the appearance of a positive. So despite the name there is no tin in a tintype! The process is quite hard to visualize but this great video shows you how a tintype is made.

We can date this photograph pretty accurately because of the stamp on the reverse. At the start of the American Civil War the Revenue Act of 1862 was passed by the Union goverment. This was a tax on "luxury goods" such as playing cards and telegrams. By 1864 with money for the war running out Congress passed an act which also taxed photographs. Photographers were required to collect the tax, apply the stamp showing that the tax had been paid, and then cancel the stamp by initialing and dating it.

 The 2 cent stamp on this tintype tells us that the sitters originally paid 25 cents for this photograph. By 1865 the tax was repealed on photographs, so this tintype was made between 1864 and 1865.

I believe this could be one of the earliest photographic depictions of a Dalmatian that exists. The dog bears a striking similarity of Dalmatian's of the period.

A cropped eared Dalmatian depicted in The Dog in Health and Disease by John Henry Walsh, 1859

Another cropped eared Dalmatian painted by T. Goetz in 1853

Sources:

• The Civil War Sun Picture Tax, Taxed Photographs 1864-1866, Collected and Curated by Bruce Barlya
• The Ohio Historicial Society Blog - What do you know about Tintypes? 
• The Dog in Health and Disease by John Henry Walsh, 1859