the Pipe and Tabor compendium

the Pipe and Tabor compendium

essays on the three-hole pipe
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Europe history: street entertainers

dancing dogs
[with other animals)

gallery contents

 

Pipe and tabor players used animals to attract the public:

“ …As dancing dogs make oafs and children swarm,
Dress, mien, demeanour all in human form —
As monkeys, reared erect on paws or breech,
Well mimic man in all but laugh and speech —
Or as from street to street queer camel's shown,
From other beasts by pipe and tabor known,…”

The Tribulations of an Uneducated Poet in the 1760s’ by James Woodhouse

 
1050-12001050-1200 monkey on a chain held by taborer, Dienné, France
 
1220-12401220-1240 Italian (Sicily) image illustrating
a translated early Egyptian manuscript 12v
medievalmedieval
12501250 Bruges, Belgium 12801280 France
end 13th centuryend 13th century Artois, France
 13th or 14th century13th/14th century Cambrai, France
 

1300-13251325 Flanders
 
13251325 horn and bell, Cologne, Germany
 
1324-281324-28 dancing monkey, France f.76r
1350-14001350-1400 Gemini, Burgundy or S. Netherlands f13
copy of 1220-1240 Italian (Sicily) image
medievalunknown medieval 14451445 Lille, France 14801480 Tournai or Lille, Belgium or France
 
unknown1500 underside of plate, Holland

1500 Lubeck, Germany:

'On the broad side of the larger
silver knife of a set of daggers
there is a minstrel with a one-handed
flute and a drum, accompanied
by a dancing dog.  
Length of the knife: 17 cm.'

  
 
15001500 Flemish
15051505 Bible, France
15101510 part of wood screen in chapel
Normandy, France
 
1525-15501525-1550
Valenciennes, France
   
  17th century17th century Italy, child
[adult with hurdy gurdy ] 		17th century17th century, the Goose Game, Belgium 1601-16751601-1675 dancing monkeys, Holland c269
 
1700-17251700-1725 allegorical painting, Italy
1718source  
  17531753 Italy
[plate no. 54  -
"it amuses me to make these dogs dance..." ] 		late 18th century1753 playbill
Portugal wall tiles18th century wall tiles, Portugal
 
 
1750-801750-80 tapestry, France
unknown dateunknown date
 
 
17851785 painting, France
   
 
1826, London, 'Plaintiff Bumpkin, and Defendant Ape': description of a court case :1826 Oxford University and City Herald - Saturday 21 January 1826
 
1829 1829Library of Entertaining Knowledge, Volume 27
by Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (Great Britain)
 

1831 newspaper report 'Italian Boys'
“The following curious particulars connected with this tribe of travelling mendicants, and their mode of living,
will, we have no doubt, prove interesting to our readers….charges made by the proprietors upon the juvenile crew :—

For dancing dogs, four in number, including dresses, spinning wheel, pipe and tabor, &c. 5s. per day."

The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction 1831-11-19: Vol 18 Iss 519
 
1833 school interupted1833 Blackwood's Edinburgh magazine, Volume 20
18341834 ‘The Literary Tablet’ 1834-03-15: Vol 2 Iss 25

1840 satire1840Palmerston as a taborer, the dancing dogs are Austria and Prussia
1840 comment on satire1840Morning Post - Monday 16 November 1840
 
18401840 dancing dogs with pandean pipes and drum player
 
18651865 York Museums Trust VictorianVictorian 1849-18811849-1881 children's illustration, France
Spain Spain
19th century19th century Milan, Italy
Victorian19th century Holland
1825-18821825-1882 Leiden, Holland
Victorian19th century Holland
19th century19th century Provence, France
19th century19th century France
18721872 magazine illustration, France
18791879 Barcelona, Spain, [page 198]
18831883 Spain
 

1874 trial account for THOMAS GEORGE SELMAN. Breaking Peace; wounding:

“the black man goes by the name of "Snipe," he has dancing dogs…on 14th February, near 4 o'clock,
I went to the Sun, and found the prisoner there—the black man came in after me, and was performing with a doll…”

Proceedings of the Central Criminal Court, London, 2nd March 1874, t18740302-224
1881 story 1881 storyReynolds's Newspaper - Sunday 10 July 1881. Also called the 'Dead Fair' here
 
unknownnear Turin, Italy
1850-19001850-1900 trade card for Bon Marche, France
VictorianVictorian pandean pipes and dogs
unknown date
1886
1887 Christmas card1887 Christmas card

1897 story: dancing monkey entertained in the street:

..." a jackanapes he had seen once at the Stratford fair, which wore a crimson jerkin and a cap.
The man who had the jackanapes played upon a pipe and a tabor; and when he said,
"Dance!" the jackanapes danced, for it was sorely afraid of the man.”

'Master Skylark' a novel by John Bennett

 


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©an on-going project with lots more to add Last modified 21 July, 2026