Antique Novelty Conversation Prints: Dogs, Horses, Circus Dogs, oh my

I just adore novelty prints or conversation prints - so named because they sparked conversations. Their heyday was the 1880s and into the 1890s and zillions of yards were printed.

Here are a few from one of my tumbling block stars quilts from Lancaster County Pennsylvania, 1880s.

 Dogs were extremely popular motifs.

 And horses, horseshoes, jockey caps, etc. anything equestrian was super popular!
 

And lots of tiny, intricate prints like this circus dog performing tricks!

And I just found a great article on the collection of the Design Center at Philadephia University. Happy reading.