Two Sleeping Dogs
Horace Walpole’s Spaniel and Poodle

Strawberry Hill ID: sh-000025
1782
Damer, Anne Seymour (English sculptor, 1749-1828)


Sculpture
Terracotta on marble base
21.5 x 42.7 x 34.4 cm
Signed: Anna Damer Londinensis fecit 1782.
Rt Hon. the Earl of Derby, S029

Strawberry Hill History

Location: Little Parlour

1774 Description: Additions since the Appendix…In the Little Parlour. Two sleeping dogs, the original model in terra-cotta, by the honorable Mrs. Damer, which she afterwards executed in marble for the duke of Richmond. (149)

1784 Description: Text same as D1774 Description (84)

Sale Text: A model in terra cotta, by Lady Anne Damer, of two Dogs, very spirited in effect under a glass case.

Object History

Provenance: By 1784, Horace Walpole; 1842, Strawberry Hill Sale, day 16, lot 116, bt Earl of Derby £32.0.6 (“under a glass case”).

Exhibition History: Royal Academy, 1784, no. 539 “Two dogs asleep, in marble.” (Horace Walpole’s terracotta is the model for this).
"Horace Walpole's Strawberry Hill," Victoria and Albert Museum, 5 March 2010 - 4 July 2010, cat. no. 255.

Bibliography: Percy Noble, Anne Seymour Damer, a Woman of Art and Fashion, 1748-1828 (London: K. Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., Ltd., 1908), 78-79 and 81.
Susan Benforado, “Ann Seymour Damer (1748-1828)” Ph.D. dissertation. (The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1986), no. 32.