Dog – Smoking a Water Pipe

Spelter inkwell features a dog on its lid, sitting atop a drum-like latticed base with dolphin feet. There is a bag beside the dog connected to a tube in his mouth. Is the dog drinking? Or smoking a water pipe or hookah – which was a popular item during that era for smoking flavored tobacco? On some versions (not the one pictured here), embossed along the top edge are the words “He’s Caught On”.

This inkwell was likely a promotional advertising giveaway inkwell from Hoyt’s Broadway play “A Stranger, in New York” from 1897. The inkwell is a little dog from the play and his prop with the words “He’s Caught On” on the lid. See the photo from a poster advertising the play.