Antique Image of the Day: Le Danger De Manger De La Souris Est Qu'Ensuite Votre Chat Ne Coure Après, 1870

Le Danger De Manger De La Souris Est Qu'Ensuite Votre Chat Ne Coure Après, 1870

Everyone has different holiday traditions. But, I don’t think most of us eat live cats.


Here, we see a satirical print in which a cat leaps into the mouth of a man sitting down to dinner. The surprised man still holds a knife and fork in both hands. This odd print is from a set of French caricatures, broadsheets and illustrations which were bound in 1870 in ten volumes of red leather which have been gold-tooled and stamped with imperial emblems.

The caricaturist is Amedee Charles Henry Noé, the Count of Noé. The print was first published in Le Charivari on December 1, 1870 in order to make light of the unconventional sustenance circulated through Paris. The print was inspired by the tale of a man who was puzzled to find himself pursued through Paris by a pack of barking dogs, until he remembered that he had eaten a rat for breakfast.