'The Bull-Dog', viewed in profile, looking to the right of the image. In the background two men are baiting a bull with three additional dogs. Wood-engraving print on paper. Illustration featured in 'A General History of Quadrupeds' (first published 1790). Engraved by Thomas Bewick, from a drawing by Mr Pennant. Newcastle upon Tyne, England.

An bulldog, viewed in profile, looking to the right of the image. The background shows a small church and a number of houses and trees. In the middle-distance a bull is being attacked by a bulldog, which is hanging onto its face, and pursued by two men with a further two dogs.

Formerly C.8988, a list showing both new and old numbers in 64/2371

This engraving featured in Thomas Bewick's first major independent publication, A General History of Quadrupeds, first printed and published in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1790. The publication contains illustrations of animals, alongside brief descriptions of their appearance, habits and habitats, accompanied by a number of illustrative vignettes, used mainly as tailpieces.

The text accompanying the illustration (in the publication) reads as follows:

'THE BULL-DOG is the fiercest of all the Dog kind, and is probably the most courageous creature in the world. It is low in stature, but very strong and muscular. Its nose is short; and the under jaw projects beyond the upper, which gives it a fierce and unpleasing aspect. – Its courage in attacking the Bull is well known: Its fury in seizing, and its invincible obstinacy in maintaining, its hold, are truly astonishing. It always aims at the front; and generaly fastens upon the lip, the tongue, the eye, or some part of the face; where it hangs, in spite of every effort of the Bull to disengage himself.
The uncommon ardour of these Dogs in fighting will be best illustrated by the following fact, related by an eye-witness; which at the same time corroborates, in some degree, that wonderful account of the Dogs of Epirus given by Elian, and quoted by Dr Goldsmith in his history of the Dog: - Some years ago, at a bull-baiting in the North of England, when that barbarous custom was very common, a young man, confident of the courage of his Dog, laid some trifling wagers, that he would, at separate times, cut off all the four feet of his Dog; and that, after every amputation, it would attack the Bull. The cruel experiment was tried; and the Dog continued to seize the Bull as eagerly as if he had been perfectly whole.
Of late years, this inhuman custom of baiting the Bull has been almost entirely laid aside in the North of England; and, consequently, there are now few of this kind of Dogs to be seen.
As the Bull-Dog always makes his attack without barking, it is very dangerous to approach him alone, without the greatest precaution.'

Taken from: Beilby, Ralph and Bewick, Thomas. A General History of Quadrupeds. Newcastle upon Tyne. Third Edition, 1792.

Historical significance: Thomas Bewick was the first engraver to exploit fully the advantages of end-grain wood (the wood is cut across, rather than along, the grain). Once it had been proved that the technique could rival the fine effects of metal engraving, the advantages of wood engraving to the book trade were quickly recognised. Allowing both text and illustration to be printed in one operation, it ousted the intaglio process as the favourite for book illustration and was only superseded at the end of the nineteenth century when methods of photomechanical reproduction were developed.

Thomas Bewick's A General History of Quadrupeds was first published in 1790.

CIRC.560-1964