The Bower Saloon in London's Stangate Street, Lambeth, was originally attached to the Duke's Tavern, and operated as a place of entertainment from 1837 until 1878. During the 1850s when owned by Victor Hazelton, it made its name for the production of melodramas starring dogs. This playbill features two woodcut image, which were particularly good for attracting the attention of passers-by, especially those who couldn't read. The clientele of the Bower Saloon, which advertised itself as 'the only theatre for the working classes', would have included many of those, attracted by for low ticket prices, action-packed presentations including melodrama, farce and nautical drama, and the availability of alcohol, the sale of which was a popular feature of 19th century theatres like the Bower that styled themselves as saloons rather than theatres.

Stage plays starring dogs had been successful 19th century fare since December 1803, when Frederick Reynolds' play The Caravan, or the Driver and His Dog opened at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. The scene when Carlo the Newfoundland dog leapt into an artificial lake on stage to rescue a child from drowning caused a sensation, and spawned specially written dog dramas, the most famous of which, Le Chien de Montargis, ou la Forêt de Bondy, based on an old French legend, premiered in Paris in 1814. Translated as The Dog of Montargis, or the Forest of Bondy, the play became one of the staple dog dramas presented at the Bower Saloon. On this occasion both melodramas featured dogs, because the evening was for the benefit of Mr. Lamb who owned the canine stars Nero and Carlo. The naming of one of his dogs as Carlo would have been a deliberate echo of the more famous eponymous dog earlier in the century.