Books about antiques.(Book review)

Man's best friends--a historical overview

As a rule, a photograph of the author printed on the inside back flap of the dust jacket of a book reveals little about either the book's contents or the author's suitability to his or her topic. However, the picture on the back flap of Pets in America: A History proves to be the exception to this general rule, for there lies Katherine C. Grier enjoying the company of Patti, one of her two dogs. The introduction further convinces the reader that Grier is the right person for this book by revealing that her first word was kitty.

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Grier begins her lucidly written and well-researched history with the English historian Keith Thomas's definition of a pet as (1) an animal that was allowed into the house, (2) given an individual name, and (3) never eaten. But she ultimately decides that his criteria are not entirely accurate and states that "the most important quality pets share is that they have been singled out by human beings"--ponies were pets, and so were chickens and pigs, and they were eventually eaten.

Americans have long been pet lovers. Besides his notable pack of foxhounds and the famous dalmations that often accompanied his carriage, George Washington, for example had Chloe, Pompey, and Frish--all house dogs--and a parrot, the latter obtained from the captain of a West Indian trading ship that docked at Mount Vernon in 1773. Grier explores how pets reflected and even shaped American values, primarily between 1840 and 1940, the principal years covered in the book. She uses paintings, decorative prints, period photographs, and a variety of objects such as birdcages as illustrations, but the fact that they are all reproduced in black-and-white makes it clear that this is a serious investigation of cultural trends. During the period covered the most commonly owned pets were dogs, cats, songbirds, rabbits, rodents, and fish.

Grier's study begins just as photography was gaining currency, and then, as now, pet owners increasingly sought to capture their pet's likeness. These photographs are among the most powerful and delightful images in the book and range from formal "portraits" of the pets alone or with their owners to a casual shot of ...