Dogs Playing Poker Pictures Sold For $590.400

Published: Thursday, February 17, 2005 Online-Casinos.com

Dogs playing poker pictures sold for a an unexpected $590,400
These paintings take a bow, wow! - Artworks of dogs playing poker net unexpected riches.

The news that a couple of Cassius Marcellus Coolidge's paintings of dogs playing poker sold for more than half a million dollars had Alan Fausel's phone burning with calls.

Fausel is the director of paintings for Doyle New York, the auction house that sold the art works, and he's been taking calls from eager strangers who own a poster or an ashtray with Coolidge's iconic images. The callers are asking if their Coolidges might be worth as much.

"These are very important images to American popular culture," Fausel said.

The images are simple: A Bold Bluff features five canines sitting around a table, heavily involved in a game of poker. A St. Bernard stares down the table, knowing he's got a losing hand. Waterloo shows the resolution - the St. Bernard happily collecting his chips, while the other pooches react with disappointment or anger at the loss.

The two paintings weren't expected to bring in more than $200,000. And the initial estimate ($35,000) was set low to spur interest, Fausel added.

The final price was an unexpected $590,400. This was a surprising price considering this type of art isn't highly regarded. In fact, the paintings (16 in all) were completed while Coolidge was employed by Brown and Bigelow, an advertising company. It was a path well worn by such artist/illustrators as James Montgomery Flagg and Norman Rockwell.

Brown and Bigelow went on to mass-distribute the images, which now can be found everywhere.

"I don't know if I can ever reproduce these kinds of results," Fausel said.

Doyle New York sold the paintings as part of its annual Dogs in Art auction, which coincides with the Westminster Kennel Club dog show.

But Fausel said this time around it wasn't the dog lovers buying the paintings. "It was more the Wall Street-type bidding," he said, citing a reaction to the sudden popularity of poker on television and online poker.