This marble statuette of a dog, possibly a whippet or toy terrier, is by Joseph Gott (1786-1860). The date of this piece is uncertain, but it is likely to have been produced during Gott's time in Rome (1823-60). Gott was well known for his statuettes of dogs and exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy.

Gott (1786-1860) was an English sculptor. He trained in London between 1798 and 1802 under John Flaxman, and from 1805 at the Royal Academy Schools. In 1822 he moved permanently to Rome, where he and John Gibson were quickly getting a good reputation.‘ Gott returned regularly to England to meet his patrons and get commission from both the aristocracy and the industrial magnates of the North. All his finished works were carved in marble.
Friedman comments that ‘Gott was never attracted by the austere neo-Greek style practised by Gibson and Richard James Wyatt: his sculpture is unheroic, pastoral, romantic.’ The period from 1822 to 1837 was his most productive, while later his work became less prominent even receiving hostile criticism.