Anthony Cavo loves his dogs as much as he loves rummaging through basements and attics. Even as a child, he was gathering forgotten pieces of the past. A recent profile in the Washington Post documents his latest project: a photobook filled with photos of dogs from the 19th and early 20th centuries.
A Unique Upbringing
Cavo cites his mother as his primary inspiration for getting into the antique business. Growing up in the 1960s, his parents would take him on road trips looking for treasures of the past to sell at the family’s two antique shops in New Jersey.
Along the way, the family picked a few new family members. Cavo recalls Winston the Pug, who belonged to a breeder but was past his prime years and set to be put down. Instead, Anthony’s mother made sure that Winston lived out his golden years in peace. They also rescued a Schnauzer named Schatzi from an estate sale. According to him, when they heard the dog whimpering in the basement, the estate executor informed them that nobody wanted the dog. Fortunately, Cavo’s mother again took the pup in and gave him a forever home.
Among all the artifacts the young antiquer saw, the old photographs drew Cavo in the most. In the introduction to his new book, he recalls a fruitful afternoon searching through a Pennsylvania antique shop:
“One day in 1963, among the piles of horsehair-stuffed Victorian chairs, marble-topped furniture, pier mirrors, and primitive furniture, I found a wooden box, its exterior stenciled in black: ‘From G. Cramer Dry Plate Co., St. Louis, MO.’ I moved the box to a hazy patch of sunlight that entered the barn through a dirty, cracked window alive with fluttering cobwebs and opened it to find hundreds of people dressed like the people in my school history books… I was hooked, a photoholic; I had to have them.”
Cataloging the Past
The discovery of the photos would blossom into a life-long love affair for Cavo. Over the next 50 years, he became a certified and dedicated appraiser of arts and antiques. A notably large number of photos he collected were photos of people with their dogs. As a dog lover himself, Cavo was fascinated by the photos. These dogs were not only useful to their parents, they were loved and cared for.
The book’s collection spans from the 1840s to the early 1930s. It is a great collection of dog parents of the past and their beloved pets. On top of that, the book is also a well-curated visual history of portrait photography in the United States. Among the black and white and sepia photographs, Cavo describes the various methods used to take photos back then, and the obstacles photographers faced.
As a photographer and dog lover himself, Cavo also peppers the book with personal anecdotes and tales. Stories of heroic dogs and his own personal pets show just how personal this project was for Cavo.
Needless to say, the photos remind us that our pups have always given us love and companionship.
