Advertising mascot at one time for a railroad company. My picture is matted and in a 20 x 16 inch wooden frame.
I was at an estate auction of a belongings of a C&O employee. Picked up a ashtray and an old rule book. I think I posted these on here many years ago, likely in the finds thread. I think I have a paperweight/magnifier somewhere.
I had Chessie stuff in the house when I was a kid. We used it. I have a C&O ad hanging up on the wall as we speak. My late dad was a rail nut and a cat lover so....MEOW!
I made a paint by numbers painting of that image when I was young! I think it's still hanging on the wall at my parents' house. Not happy with the result, as you can hardly see the outlines of the pillow and bed sheets, so it looks more like a cat's head in a weird blurry cloud. Never knew the image was based on existing artwork. And I wonder if it was officially based on the Chessie, or if was sold as a random sleeping cat that "coincidentally" looks like the Chessie ...
Chessie may have been entirely fictional, but there was a story that one of the porters found a tabby cat asleep in a Pullman berth with her head on the pillow. It was a famous image at the time, so I wouldn't be surpised if somebody knocked it off.
Probably this one or one of Grünewald's other cats. He was an excellent artist who painted mainly cats. Grünewald's cats were hugely popular in Europe, just like the more sentimental cat paintings by Dutch painter Henriëtte Ronner-Knip. I didn't even know Grünewald's "Sleeping Kitten" was known as Chessie across the pond. I hope they paid him or his descendants, but I guess that wasn't a thing in those days, and Austria was a world away.
I remember reading that story. By that time Guido Grünewald had passed away, so that wasn't his inspiration. He painted kittens in their favourite resting places, which is usually the big bed, as we cat lovers know. Like these two:
Henriëtte Ronner-Knip, no sleeping kittens, but kittens at play, watched over by their mother. Aka "The Piano Lesson": I like how she signed her name (clearly!) on the stack of music manuscripts.
The C&O used the cats in advertising all over the place, so I suspect it was a case of great minds thinking alike.
