Hark ! Hark ! The dogs do bark.

This very rare political caricature map of Europe depicts the continent at the outbreak of World War I, or as it was called at the time the Great War. Designed by Johnson, Riddle & Company Ltd. The Johnson, Riddle & Company Ltd was a well-known printing company that worked with a team of lithographic artists. They played an important role in the production of posters.
The size of the map is 490 x 700mm., with underneath 4 columns of text. Size of the paper is 550 x 755mm.
We also offer a pen and ink with watercolor design, on a slightly smaller scale that could be the original design or working copy of this lithography.

The principal countries in the conflict are depicted as the Dogs of War. Germany is identified as an aggressive Dachshund attached to its Austrian ally shown as a yapping mongrel.
Opposing them are the dandified French Poodle and the British Bulldog who has chomped onto the Dachshund's nose. Russia is depicted both as a traditional bear and as a massive steamroller driven into the heart of Europe by a determined-looking Tsar.
A giant British sailor is a puppeteer for a huge naval fleet, while a Turk with his pet Dachshund controls a small German fleet in the Black Sea. The other countries are also boldly caricatured with humorous illustrations - a Spanish bullfighter, a knife-wielding Greek, Italian carabinieri, a Swiss mountaineer, and a Serbian mosquito.
It would take a good deal of study to understand the totality of this map's political and satirical nuances.

Read more about Pictorial Maps and cartographical curiosities [+]

Reference: Bryars and Harper, A history of the 20th century in 100 maps, pages 46 and 47; Curtis 2016, 20-21; Baynton-Williams 2015, 206.