Query: Self-portrait (was autograph)

[RonButters at AOL.COM]

In a message dated 7/10/2000 2:11:38 PM, lynnem at COGS.SUSX.AC.UK writes:

<< No, I don't think it's regional.  It's a universal lame attempt at
banter >>

I agree. This puts me in mind of something I have heard several times in the
South: the use of "self-portrait" to mean not 'portrait of the painter by the
painter' but 'portrait of the owner of the painting' or even 'portrait of the
person being honored'. Several years ago my son-in-law Carl's baseball jersey
was retired in a ceremony at his the college where he played baseball as a
student; there was a banquet and a portrait of Carl was unveiled which the
local papers described as a "self-portrait" even though Carl neither owned it
or painted it (or even sat for the painting, which was made from a
photograph). Is this regional or America-wide?