REIGNING CATS AND DOGS - A HISTORY OF PETS AT COURT SINCE THE RENAISSANCE.

UK,12mo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.FINE/FINE.No owner inscrptn,and no price- clip to dw/dj.Crisp,bright,glossy laminated,colour pictorial illustrated dw/dj; with negligible shelf-wear and creases to edges - no nicks or tears present.Top+fore-edges bright and clean; contents bright,tight and pristine.Publisher's clean unmarked,original brown cloth boards with bright, crisp,blocked gilt letters to spine/backstrip and immaculate beige endpapers.UK,12mo HB+dw/dj,1st edn,7-304pp includes b/w photograph vignette illustrated half-title (Edward VII's pet's gravestone), double-page b/w illustrated frntis+title page,a contents list/table,profuse b/w contemporary illus/photographs throughout the text,32pp colour illus/ photographs in blocks of 8pp between pp32/33, pp160/61,pp192/93 and pp256/57 respectively,5 chapters,notes,an index and picture acknowledgements. When the Dowager Empress of China died in 1908,her favourite Pekingnese was led before her coffin by the chief eunuch,following a precedent of some nine hundred years' standing.Queen Victoria,entertaining Napoleon III and the Empress Eugenie at Windsor, regarded a visit to the kennels as the high point of an afternoon's walk.And contemporary chroniclers of the French Revolution rather implausibly claimed that Marie Antoinette's dog,Thisbee,was so distraught at the queen's incarceration that it committed suicide. For monarchs and their consorts,cats,dogs and the occasional parrot have acted as constant companions, unquestioning allies,surrogate children and silent repositories of whispered confidences.For their isolated children,cats and dogs were often the only source of emotional comfort and warmth. From Empress Josephine's collection of pugs (who had their own personal maid in spite of Napoleon's distaste for them) to Elizabeth II's dynasty of corgis, the history of these pampered pets offers us a fascinating and often hilarious peek into the exalted world of their owners.Using a rich source of previously untapped historical documentation,Katharine MacDonogh has written a revolutionary account - seen from floor level - of court life since the Renaissance.
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