This print from hand-painted with pencil, is a wonderful example of Victorian or Edwardian “Anthropomorphic” art, a popular 19th-century genre where animals were depicted in human-like poses or situations.
While many vintage prints feature “Dogs Playing Poker” or “Dogs Smoking,” this particular piece is notable for its realism. Instead of being a cartoon, it is rendered with the seriousness of a human portrait, which was a hallmark of the English School of animal painters from the 1870s–1890s.
Setting a subject in an oval “window” was the standard for formal portraits from the mid-1800s to the early 1900s. It was meant to give the piece a dignified, heirloom quality—which makes the pipe-smoking dog even funnier by contrast. The “foxing” (the small brown spots) you see on the paper is actually a sign of authenticity. It is caused by the oxidation of iron or fungal growth in old paper fibers over decades.
