Hold That Tiger!!

You may or may not know that the “Tiger Rag,” which starts off with the lyric “Hold that tiger!” is Louisiana State University’s fight song. I don’t follow sports, but I DO love cats of all breeds, both domestic and wild. And since 2022 is the Year of the Tiger on the Chinese lunar calendar, now is a great time to celebrate tiger art.

I absolutely ADORE the tiger painting in this room, and I’d love to have it for my very own. The room is cute, too, but that cat: MeOW-o-me-o-my!

Just look at that face! He looks like he’s just downed a juicy missionary, and I want him for my living room! He really wouldn’t have fit into the place I lived when I first saw this photo, but he would be the cat’s pajames in my new digs.

That is, if I could find a print or something similar FOR SALE at a price I could afford.

Elizabeth Hay Design

I pinned the original photo several years back, but recently this photo with a similar painting showed up on a blog I follow. The colors are reversed–the tiger is greenish (on my monitor) and the background is more tiger-colored–and he’s walking in the opposite direction. There’s also two rows of tiny leafless trees in this one. But that slathering expression is the same, and I am smitten.

Google image searches of both photos gave me two more photos with similar images, both in the portfolio of the same interior designer:

Elizabeth Hay Design

This image is the same as the prior one but with a different coloration.

Elizabeth Hay Design

This one is a bit different than the others, but still pretty cool.

So what IS out there for sale?

I did manage to find some purchase options with searches on specific vintage sites:

This antique Chinese silk textile was available on 1stDibs for a mere $4,238. It’s age is listed as circa 1900, and its size is approximately 45-by-71 inches. It contains the bare trees as in one of the Elizabeth Hay Design photos, but the tiger’s walking in the opposite direction.

Ditto this one, a 1950s Indian oil painting on canvas entitled “Real Bengal Tiger,” sized at approximately 48-by-69 inches and available for $3,152 on 1stDibs.

This one is similar to another of the Elizabeth Hay Design photos and is available on 1stdibs. It’s also described as a 1950s Indian oil painting painting on canvas entitled “Real Bengal Tiger.” It’s about 49-by-72 inches and is listed for $3,151.

All this tells me this was a genre image, interpreted by a variety of artists, perhaps as an exercise.

Finally, there’s this circa 1990s tufted wool tiger rug, sized 3-by-5 feet and offered on Chairish for $399, though the day I looked at it it was on sale for $319 (one day only). It is actually pretty cool, and although priced well, a little more than I wanted to spend on something that wasn’t exactly what I wanted.

Some other options, mostly on Etsy

This “Tiger Boy” folk art print is really neat but only available in 11-by-14 inches. Still, it’s priced right at $18.50 and would be easy to frame because of the standard size. The expression on the tiger’s face is priceless–like, How did I end up here, harnessed and ridden?

“Pir Gazi and His Tiger” is available in 12-, 20- and 28-inch-square sizes, framed, for $61, $94 and $127, respectively. It’s a pretty cool print, though I wish I could buy it unframed and frame it myself to give it a bit more presence.

The print on the left is available unframed in sizes ranging from about 6-by-8 inches to 12-by-17 inches for $16 to $30. The one on the right is available in sizes ranging from about 6-inches square to 17-inches square for $21 to $63. I love the one on the left the most–the colors are so vibrant–but think they’d work well together in a grouping because each depicts a tiger in the lilypads.

So maybe a larger image grouped with several smaller images is the way to go. The image on the left is a reproduction of a vintage matchbox available in sizes ranging from about 6-by-8 inches to 23-by-33 inches for $13 to $74. The one on the right is an Asian postcard priced at $1.45 on Zazzle, and the tiger’s expression is priceless–MEH, he’s saying, I’m sure of it.

Then there’s the wild card–literally and figuratively. This unframed print of a tiger-woman hybrid from ancient Vedic literature comes in sizes ranging from 6-inches square to 30-inches square and prices ranging from $20 to $63. Notice her “paws” are really tiger heads.

I think she’s really cool, but also a little creepy. The only story I can seem to find about her is that she was some sort of nature spirit. The story pictured here is of men at the side of a river. One, spying the creature’s head above water is taking his clothes off in hopes of a sexual adventure with her. But little does he know that below the neck she is a tiger. So she is either a powerful being who can defend herself or a demon who lures men to their deaths. Hmmm.

I DO love her paws, though!

So, here’s what I ordered…

These two were my favorites hands-down. And after I measured the spots I wanted to hang them, I wasn’t sure I needed or wanted a whole gallery wall.

Especially not after I tried arranging around the big black hole of our television set.

I don’t know yet how I’ll want to mount and frame them, which will make them somewhat larger. Both come unframed (I just put a black border around the folk art tiger on the right to simulate a frame), so I don’t know if the swimming tiger print has a white border or is pictured with a mat.

I decided I could always add more images later and make a gallery wall but it was best to start slowly. (I also knew my husband didn’t think he’d like a gallery, or, in fact, anything hung on that wall. This was my compromise.)

Here they are mocked-up on a framing website with mats and frames. Perhaps not as I will eventually do them, but it looks better than black boxes around them.

I am assuming the tiger swimming image is printed with a white border, and I quite like that showing. I mocked it up covering the border and using a bottom mat and didn’t like it nearly as well so am not showing it.

I can’t wait for these prints to arrive so I can get to work on all that needs to be done to hang them.

Here are the ‘also-rans’…

I, of course, couldn’t afford the ones costing thousands of dollars, so this was my next favorite in the affordable range. But I also guessed Chris would hate it, which he did when I showed it to him. He thought the tiger’s face was too unrealistic, and it is, but so is the idea of a man riding it.

And love her tiger-head paws as I do, this one just creeped me out too much to have it hanging on my walls. Chris agreed.

I do also love dearly this little postcard-size image. And I may end up ordering him, small though he is, and framing him in a big way. We’ll see after the others are in place. But for now “Hold that tiger” is good advice.

Go LSU!

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