Going to the Dogs

It's been a while since my last "Time Capsule" post that looks at random artifacts that have found their way to me.  Given the degree of decluttering that is actually necessary I should be finding things like this on a daily basis.

Here's a classic:

Even if your interest in Americana is minimal you probably recognize this as a piece in the genre of "Dogs Playing Poker".  This particular one is called "His Station and Four Aces".

We had this in a frame of uncertain vintage.  When it was removed it had a strip of thicker cardboard across the top, identifying it as part of a calendar.  Of course lacking the helpful dates.

So what can we learn here?

This is a print, of an original from 1903.  The artist, Cassius Marcellus Coolidge, would also have to be considered an original.  His bio is worth a quick read.  In addition to being a painter he was at various times a cartoonist, a druggist, and tried to start both a bank and a newspaper.  Sometime in the 1890's he started painting pictures of dogs doing human things.  

He became popular after the turn of the century, mostly thanks to the efforts of the Brown and Bigelow company of St. Paul, Minnesota.  Lets zoom in on the picture, shall we?

In addition to fun details like the dog wearing a pinky ring, you can just see the copyright logo, B & B, St. Paul.

Brown and Bigelow was founded in 1896.  They were, still are in fact, an advertising firm.  In 1903 they commissioned C.M. Coolidge - "Kash" to his friends - to paint a series of  sixteen"Dogs" for their use.  The mutts do more than play cards.  They go dancing, play baseball, smoke and drink, appear in court.  They are whimsical in the best of ways....we see ourselves in our Best Friends.  Two of the original oil paintings in the series were sold as a pair in 2006....for $590,000!  "Poker Game", an 1894 version that predates the Brown and Bigelow series did even better.  It got $658,000 when it sold at Sotheby's of New York in 2015.

I was hoping for additional clues on the back of my specimen, but alas this was not to be.  From the size, the cardboard edging on the top, and the general condition, I'd say what I have is the image cut off the top of a calendar from the 1950's or 60's.  Something like this:

Cassius M. Coolidge has attained a degree of lasting fame.  I think he deserved it.  He had an eye for humor, and wisely picked dogs as his material.  I just don't think cats would cut it.

Another, albeit smaller degree of lasting fame goes to one of the earliest internet viral videos, Ultimate Dog Tease.  If you've not seen it, well here it is.  Its in the same spirit as the poker pups...

211 million views.  Its just a great dog.  Sadly the star - Clark G. - passed away last year.  I hope, no, I believe, he's now in a dog paradise where he gets "the maple kind" of bacon three meals a day.