I have recently been exposed to this Gaiman series, and was quite taken by the details the designers put in, including this prop briefly used on screen. Was this partially born of some commercially available placemat templates for all states? I feel like I know the exact texture of this placemat paper, though it's been decades since I've seen a Stuckey's place mat. They made completely decorative, non-absorbing paper napkins of the stuff in the late 'sixties as well. It's would take finding the right pinking shears to duplicate that edge I think.
The bird on a branch at top left is most probably the state bird (mockingbird). The flower design is that of an iris. The skyline is from a much simpler time in Nashville, including the "flying saucer" motel on top of a high rise tower, the L&C tower, the outline of the state capitol building, etc. The portrait under the bills on the right hand side will be a woodcutty profile of Davy Crockett in a coonskin cap. I wonder if the lower right hand corner would've had a Walking Horse on it, or a profile of the Andrew Jackson/horse statue, or simple clip art depicting The Hermitage.
Does anyone have an idea of which standard Tennessee Map was used? It is an older one because the 840 loop is less complete than it is now. Finally, Hermitage is not marked on the map with a tiny Motel America icon, which would've been The Thing for placemats of this type, marking it with the chain's locations. I wonder in my head canon if the neon sign for Motel America-Hermitage is some mash-up like a President Jackson-like figure on a steed striking a Tennessee Walking Horse stance: mildly incorrect for only the most perceptive of viewers to notice, like the myths around American History themselves.
(If someone finds a scan of the actual item, that would be Moby, since my graphic arts capabilities are not much above tracing things off a computer screen with parchment paper and a pencil. .... It's a long shot; but, You Don't Get Slapped if You Don't Ask.) Thanks, packrat
