i JAN STEEN 87 dog; to the left is a three-legged stool, against which is placed a pan; on a table to the right are a mug and a white cloth ; a lute hangs on the wall. Signed in full in the left-hand bottom corner ; panel, 27 inches by 23^ inches. A copy of this is in the Mainz Picture Gallery. Sales. Amsterdam, 1782. H. Muilman, Amsterdam, April 13, 1813, No. 145. Formerly in the collection of J. S. H. van de Poll. Now in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Van de Poll bequest, 1880 ; 1905 catalogue, No. 2244. 315. CHILDREN PINCHING A CAT'S TAIL. Broad and sketchy in style. Its authenticity is doubtful, but it might be one of the artist's slighter works. Now in the collection of L. Janssen, Brussels. 316. Children playing with a Cat. 17 inches by 25 inches. Sa/e. G. and W. van Berckel, Amsterdam, March 24, 1761, No. 1277. 317. Children teaching a Cat to read. Sm. 203 ; W. 107. Two boys and two girls are in a room. One girl sits to the right, with a book in one hand and a rod in the other, and looks attentively at a cat, which a boy standing before her holds towards the book. The other boy leans on a table at the side, and, with the other girl behind him, is amused at the scene. Panel, 18^ inches by 16^ inches : a pendant to 318. Sales. Seger Tierens, The Hague, July 28, 1743, No. 181 (40 florins). A. Meynts, Amsterdam, July 15, 1823, No. 123 (550 florins, Emmerson, with pendant). In the collection of H. Phillips, London, 1833 (Sm.). Sale. (Probably) trustees of the late J. Y. V. Vernon of Strathallan, South- bourne, Hants, London, February 23, 1907, No. 83 (598 : ios., Sulley and Co.); panel, measuring 17^ inches by 13^ inches. 317*. Two Young People playing with a Cat. Panel, 9 inches by 8^ inches. Sale. J. F. Wolschot, Antwerp, September I, 1817, No. 1 1. 317^. The Cat's Lesson. Sale. Heris, Paris, April 19, 1856, No. 48. 318. Children playing with a Cat. Sm. 204; W. 108. Two boys and a girl in a room are playing with a cat as if it were a doll. The little girl, seated on the right, holds it on her lap, with a blue cloth wrapped round its head and one paw ; she offers it a spoonful of porridge. The elder boy, dressed in brown, who is laughing heartily, and his little brother are warming a blue cloth for the cat's bed over a pan of burning peat. It is an excellent work of the artist's best period. "These are admirably painted, and abound in the genuine humour of nature " (Sm., of this and 317, its pendant).
