Dutailly, Variettees/ Beaumaine, Variettees/ Beaumaine, Variettees, from the Actors and Actresses series (N45, Type 4) for Virginia Brights Cigarettes 1885 - 1891

Curator: What a curious artifact. This is a trade card dating from 1885 to 1891. It comes from a series created by Allen & Ginter for Virginia Brights Cigarettes, featuring actresses, specifically Dutailly and Beaumaine, of the Varietees. It's a collotype print, possibly enhanced with colored pencil, preserving images from photographic portraits. Editor: The card seems like such an ephemeral thing now, but I'm struck by how directly these women gaze out at us. There's a theatrical quality, almost as if each frame captures a fleeting moment of performance. The sepia tone lends a wistful aura. Curator: Exactly. These cards circulated within a growing consumer culture. Cigarette cards were early forms of advertisement, offering these images as collectables. Think about the socio-political implications—promoting tobacco alongside the allure of the stage. Mass media democratizing images, sure, but simultaneously promoting products of vice. Editor: Looking closer, the imagery around the cigarette brand and performers are carefully constructed, appealing to aspiration, vice and high art. These images carry considerable symbolic weight—the actresses representing ideals of feminine beauty, talent and a world of leisure and entertainment that must have been incredibly alluring. Each pose seems charged with symbolic intent, even the clothing choices must be rife with meaning about societal desires. Curator: Precisely, we must see these cards as part of a much larger system. How the celebrity image was starting to function, and how cultural figures become entwined with product endorsement. In this case it all promotes the spectacle. The theatre, the product, all becoming part of the experience. Editor: Thinking of performance again, notice that each portrait gives a distinct impression. One peeks playfully, another stands bold with confidence, others radiate simple beauty. It makes you consider how many different versions of the ideal woman were desired then... or even are today! The tobacco functions almost as an agent of transformation or maybe transgression here, doesn't it? Curator: A complex entanglement, absolutely. I come away with more questions than answers, actually! What was the impact on those being presented? It all warrants continued investigation of popular commercial culture from this era. Editor: Definitely, the power of symbolic imagery at play here still lingers, these little glimpses leave a lot for us to explore.