The alt.usage.english FAQ   

• "spit and image"/"spitting image"

  (Phrase Origins)
  
  

  
     These phrases mean "exact likeness".  "Spitting image" is first
  recorded in 1901; "spit and image" is a bit older (from the late
  19th century), which seems to refute the explanation "splitting
  image" (two split halves of the same tree).  An older British
  expression is "He's the very spit of his father", which Eric
  Partridge, in his _Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English_
  (Routledge, 1950) traces back to 1400:  "He's ... as like these as
  th'hads't spit him."  Other languages have similar expressions;
  e.g., the French say _C'est son pere tout crache_ = "He is his
  father completely spat."  Alternative explanations are "so alike
  that even the spit out of their mouths is the same"; "speaking
  likeness"; and a corruption of "spirit".

  
  
  Source: [Mark Israel, 'Phrase Origins: "spit and image"/"spitting image"', The alt.usage.english FAQ file,(line 5328), (29 Sept 1997)]
  
  
  
  

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