Some questions came up recently among friends, one of whom has one of these prints. Does anyone know:
Who was the original artist?
When was it originally painted?
We also debated how valuable the original would be, considering its status as an icon of bad taste. What kind of money do you think the original would get if it came up at auction today?
The originals (there were several in the series) were by Cassius Marcellus Coolidge, around 1910. A couple of sites:
Email postcards (from a great site, btw): http://www.retroactive.com/Postcards/coolidge.html
Tin signs: http://www.tias.com/stores/tsusa/pokerdogs-1.html
And their value:
http://www.homearts.com/depts/home/kfkove09.htm
All with Altavista and about 5 minutes.
Bob the Random Expert
“If we don’t have the answer, we’ll make one up.”
Cool!
So who did the original crying clown and the big eyed kids on those velvet paintings?
“non sunt multiplicanda entia praeter necessitatem”
– William of Ockham
I’ll see you and raise you one velvet Elvis…
I love those ESPC commercials…
Yer pal,
Satan
ESPN is what I meant… sigh
I wish our humble TubaDiva would weigh in here… she has the best taste in bad taste of anyone I know. An encyclopedic knowledge of it, too.
Those scary big-eyed kid pictures used to be attributed to Walter Keane. A few years ago, his wife Margaret sued him and proved in court she was the artist and he had just been taking the credit. I can’t imagine wanting to take responsiblity for creating those things.
Geez Nick, you make a trip to South of the Border and you can be an expert too! 
For those of you that don’t know what I’m talking about, you gotta go here: South of the Border
Then you gotta GO. One stop shopping for all your tacky gift, firework, and video poker needs.
your humble TubaDiva
Buy just one painting on velvet and you spend the rest of your life trying to live it down!
PS Our Ed Zotti mentions that Great Art and Tacky Souvenirs are a world-wide deal. He just returned from a visit to Israel, where the big deal for sale is, of course, pictures of Jesus . . . enhanced so that it looks like His Eyes follow you around the room. Ed’s comment: “Makes Him look like he’s casing the joint.”
South Of The Border rules with a yardstick!
Yer pal,
Satan
You mean it STILL hasn’t gone Metric yet?