Origin of Dogs Playing Pool?

JMW said:
I still see posters and tapestries with dogs drinking, smoking, gambling and playing pool. Go to an online billiards site and you can buy many different versions.

https://www.google.com/search?q=dog...qarAGl_ICgDg&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAQ&biw=1024&bih=672

Where did this get started and why? When did the first dogs playing pool artwork appear and for what reason?
Click to expand...

I had a copy of Dogs playing cards that was the header on January on a 1921 calendar. I was too stupid when I found it (1986) to realize it might actually have value. I did, however, keep the original picture it was hiding in the original frame. It was a print of Alexander MacKenzie, second Prime Minister of Canada. Unfortunately my ex got it in the divorce.
 
I just found this... apparently dogs playing poker preceded dogs playing pool.

http://truefaith7.hubpages.com/hub/coolidge-dogs

The artist responsible for the famous paintings of poker dogs was Cassius Marcellus Coolidge, a jack of many trades who found his calling late in life when he was asked to paint a series depicting dogs playing poker for the advertising firm Brown and Bigelow.

Who knew that his art depicting gambling dogs would be popular for years to come and would grace the walls of every pool hall in the early half of the 1900s?
 
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