Brown and Bigelow hired Norman Rockwell, Maxfield Parrish, Cassius Marcellus ("C.M.") Coolidge and others to paint pictures for their calendars.  Coolidge (1845 - 1934) became famous for his poker-playing dog prints.  Eight are rather common.  I have a 9th one here (at lower right) that is not too interesting, which must explain why it is rarely --if ever-- seen.  It is called "Stranger in Camp" (referring to the lone dog in the background, very faint -- at top of picture) (that print is also known as "Topped Again").  It is also the only one that is situated outdooors, and the only one lacking humor or irony.  He painted 16 in all for B&B, starting in 1906.  Seven, then, were of dogs dressed as humans, but not in poker-playing scenes.  His hometown was Philadelphia NY (90 miles north of Syracuse).  He moved to various places including Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.  He died living in Staten Island NY.

The one in the center is titled, "A Bold Bluff."  The other eight, going clockwise from the upper left, are:  A Friend In Need, A Waterloo, Pinched With Four Aces, His Station And Four Aces, A Stranger In Camp, Sitting Up With A Sick Friend, Post Mortem, and Poker Sympathy.   (I don't know the name of the Coolidge one in the small photo, the one in the corner of the  Poker Sympathy frame.)

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