“Poker Game” is one of a series of sixteen paintings painted by Cassius Marcellus Coolidge known collectively as “Dogs Playing Poker” (though only nine of them actually show dogs playing poker). In 1903, the 59-year-old Coolidge started working for Brown & Bigelow where he churned out art like Poker Game, but he was already known to be quirky: He is credited as being the Father of Comic Foregrounds, those carnival attractions where tourists can stick their heads on top of a cartoon figure to get their photo taken.

Wherever he is, Coolidge is having the last laugh. “Poker Game” recently sold for “beaucoup” bucks, and before that, a pair of the images that were expected to go for $30,000 to $60,000 sold for $590,00.  In 2004, one literary source gave Coolidge his “props:” The 2004 book, “Poplorica: A Popular History of the Fads, Mavericks, Inventions, and Lore that Shaped Modern America” proposed that “Dogs Playing Poker” was a satirical series intended to mock the upper class in their excesses and attitudes. Who knew?

The breeds that Coolidge depicted have been debated over the years. Different sources suggest they are a Staffordshire Bull Terrier, an English Bulldog, a German Boxer, Rough Collie, a Coonhound, American Bulldog, and everything else from a Danish Dogge, Alano or Cane Corso. What do you think?