Dog on Wheels

This is my favorite piece in the Hobart Historical Society museum.


(Click on images to enlarge)

It's a toy dog, on wheels so a child could pull it around by a string.

Why is it my favorite? First, because I'm a dog person! Secondly, because to me it looks handmade, and I can't help but think of all the best reasons why a person might want to make a toy like this for a child: love, kindness, generosity, playfulness, creativity.

It's sturdy, meant to be played with. Artistically, it could be described as rough, even crude … but I prefer to call it simple and effective. With a few lines it conveys the essence of a dog, a somewhat squat, muscular dog — maybe a bulldog. Though it would have been easier to cut the sides of the dog's body as a straight vertical plane, the maker went to the trouble of shaping them to suggest the contours of a real dog, and put in a few extra touches, like the mock collar, with decorative studs, and the curly-tipped tail.



You can still see the traces of the face once painted on the dog: the eye on the side of the head, the nose, the red mouth.



I like to think that the dog lost its face and gained all those scars in the wood from hours and years of children's play.