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'DOGS
PLAYING POKER' SELLS FOR $590,400 AT DOYLE NEW YORK ON FEBRUARY
15, 2005
ANNUAL
DOGS IN ART AUCTION SETS WORLD AUCTION RECORD FOR 'POKER DOGS' ARTIST
CASSIUS COOLIDGE
Intense
Competition for Pair From Coolidge's Original 1903 Series
Paddles
were wagging at Doyle New York's annual Dogs in Art auction on February
15, 2005. Coinciding each year with the Westminster Kennel Club
dog show, the auction offers two centuries of canine paintings,
paintings, prints, bronzes and other objects.
Highlighting
this year's sale were two rare paintings from Cassius
Marcellus Coolidge's 1903 series of dogs playing poker.
The pair were estimated to fetch $30,000-50,000 at the auction.
After intense bidding from several determined bidders on the telephones
and in the salesroom, the pair sold to a private collector from
New York City for a staggering $590,400, setting a new world auction
record for the artist.
Cassius
Marcellus Coolidge was born in upstate New York in 1844 to abolitionist
Quaker farmers who named him after statesman Henry Clay's brother,
Cassius Marcellus Clay. An accomplished cartoonist, he is also credited
with creating the familiar life-size Boardwalk cutouts, which he
called Comic Foregrounds, into which one's head was placed so as
to be photographed as an amusing character.
In
1903, Coolidge contracted with the advertising firm of Brown &
Bigelow of St. Paul, Minnesota to create sixteen paintings of dogs
in various human-like situations. Nine of these paintings depicted
dogs around a card table, two of which were offered at the auction.
AUCTION
Tuesday, February 15,
2005 at 1pm
EXHIBITION
Doyle New York, 175 East 87th Street, NYC
Saturday, February 12, 10am – 5pm
Sunday, February 13, Noon – 5pm
Monday, February 14, 10am – 6pm
CATALOGUE
Subscriptions Department, 212-427-4141, ext.
257, subscriptions@DoyleNewYork.com
View
the online catalogue.
CONTACT
Alan Fausel, 212-427-4141, ext. 238, alan@DoyleNewYork.com
MEDIA
CONTACT
Louis LeB. Webre, Vice President, Marketing
and Media, 212-427-4141, ext 232, louis@DoyleNewYork.com
Images and interviews are available upon request.
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SELECTION OF AUCTION HIGHLIGHTS
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Lot 3687
Cassius Marcellus Coolidge
American, 1844-1934
A BOLD BLUFF and WATERLOO
Each signed CM Coolidge (ll)
Oils on canvas
Each 24 x 34 inches
Provenance:
Collection of William Zeckendorf, Sr.
Private Collection, Connecticut
Cassius
Marcellus Coolidge was a man of many talents who, over his long
lifetime was a banker, shopkeeper, inventor and painter - he even
penned an opera. However, he is certainly best known to generations
of Americans for his paintings of dogs playing poker. In 1903 Coolidge
was commissioned to produce 16 paintings for the advertising firm
of Brown & Bigelow of St. Paul, Minnesota. The majority of these
works depicted dogs performing many very human activities, chiefly
playing poker.
The
present works display a distinct pair. The sequential narrative
follows the same 'players' in the course of a hand of poker. In
the first, our main character, the St. Bernard holds a weak hand
as the rest of the crew maintains their best poker faces. In the
following scene, we see the St. Bernard raking in the large pot,
much to the very obvious dismay of his fellow players. Apparently,
Coolidge originally titled the two Judge St. Bernard Stand Pat
on Nothing and Judge St. Bernard Wins on a Bluff. They
were most likely re-titled A Bold Bluff and Waterloo
for convenience by Brown & Bigelow, who then mass marketed the
images.
Although
his name is not commonly remembered today, Coolidge's images seem
permanently seared into the American public conscience. They are
among our most important and endearing images of American popular
culture and stand beside the icons of other illustrators such as
Rockwell, Flagg and Wyeth.
We
are grateful to Garner Fredrickson and his forthcoming publication,
Poker dogs: The Life and Work of C.M. Coolidge, and Joseph
Richey's Web site, dogsplayingpoker.org, for their assistance in
cataloguing this lot.
Estimate
for the pair: $30,000-50,000
Sold
for $590,400
A WORLD AUCTION RECORD FOR THE ARTIST
Doyle New York will be offering another work of dogs playing poker by Coolidge on February 12, 2008 - click here for more information
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Lot Lot 3681
Percival Leonard Rosseau
American, 1859-1937
OCTOBER ON GRASSY HILL, PORTRAIT OF 'TRANSUE BILL' AND 'GLENSALE
HARRY' ON POINT
Signed Rosseau and dated 1919 (lr)
Oil on canvas
28 3/8 x 34 1/4 inches
Provenance:
Mrs. Helen Rockefeller Bowler, Cleveland, Ohio
Mr. William Fullerton, from 1962
Literature:
Taylor, Decourcy, 'Rosseau - Master of the Sporting Dog', Sporting
Classics, September/October 1985, pp.50-59, ill., p.53
Percival Rosseau was often invited by his patrons to hunt and paint
on their estates. Most prominent was Percy Rockefeller, who made
Rosseau a member of his hunting club at Overhills, on his estate
in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Rockefeller erected a studio for
Rosseau on his estate and often lent his bird dogs to Rosseau as
models.
Estimate: $50,000-70,000
Sold for $120,000
A WORLD AUCTION RECORD FOR THE ARTIST
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Lot
3629
Attributed to Thomas Earl
TERRIER IN A LANDSCAPE
Bears signature T. Earl (lc)
Oil on canvas
19 7/8 x 20 1/8 inches
Estimate: $3,000-5,000
Sold for $22,800
A WORLD AUCTION RECORD FOR THE ARTIST
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Lot 3682
Edmund Henry Osthaus
American, 1858-1928
A BRACE OF POINTERS
Signed Edmund Osthaus (ll), numbered 105 on the stretcher
Oil on canvas
24 x 36 inches
Estimate: $40,000-60,000
Sold for $39,000
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Lot 3675
Charles Olivier Depenne
French, 1831-1897
HUNTING DOGS AT REST BENEATH A TREE
Signed indistinctly Ol...Penne (lr) and numbered G.C. 14013 and
43725 #3 on the reverse
Oil on panel
18 1/8 x 14 3/4 inches
Estimate: $6,000-8,000
Sold for $14,400
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DOGS
IN ART BENEFIT BRUNCH
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