PUSS ALARM’D

A very scarce, colour printed mezzotint engraving by Philip Dawe after the painting by Henry Moreland, published in London circa 1800.

This charming domestic tableau shows a dog barking at the window and startling a cat and her kittens.  In the ensuing excitement a vase gets overturned but two of the kittens remain blissfully ignorant of the turmoil and are pictured fast asleep under their mother’s protective stance. This is a most unusual scene engraved on a charming scale but it also illustrates the subtlety of tone that can be achieved by a skilled mezzotint engraver.

Philip Dawe was the son of a city merchant whom, it is said, worked under William Hogarth.  He produced engravings after Hogarth and other contemporaries in addition to prints after his own designs.  He is considered to be very talented at his art and a highly skilled mezzotint engraver.  It is thought that he died, in London, at the beginning of the nineteenth century.

Framed size: 19 x 24 inches

£850