Summary

Front page of The Illustrated Australian News, # 334, Wednesday, 8 August 1883, showing scenes at the Victorian Dog Society's Annual Show held at the (Royal) Exhibition Buildings.

The annual show of the Poultry and Dog Society opened at the Exhibition Buildings on Thursday 26 July, 1883, and continued between 10am and 10pm on the Friday and Saturday. The poultry exhibits, pigeons and canaries were shown in the main hall, and spanned the full length of the building from the main eastern entrance to the front of the organ in the western nave. The dogs were exhibited in one of the annexes and proved to be a very popular, attendances on the Saturday being higher than the previous two days. The Argus newspaper, which devoted several columns to the event, noted on the following Monday that the exhibition 'proved to be by far the most interesting event of the kind yet held in Melbourne'. (Argus, Monday, 30 July 1883, p 11)

Physical Description

Single sheet of paper. Hand coloured wood block engraving, The masthead is highly decorative and shows a panoramic view of Melbourne from the south side of the Yarra River, looking northwards up Russell Street to Scots Church and St. Michael's Church on the corner of Collins and Russell Streets. The central illustration is encased in a circular border and shows two young women in formal contemporary fashion admiring a bulldog. The caption is Beauty & the Beast. Seven other images surround the central one, depicting various breeds of dog, judging and spectators at the event.

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