Miss Lantelme, from the Actresses series (N245) issued by Kinney Brothers to promote Sweet Caporal Cigarettes 1890

Editor: This is "Miss Lantelme," a print from 1890 by the Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company, part of their Actresses series used to promote Sweet Caporal Cigarettes. It's fascinating how the sepia tones lend it a kind of ghostly beauty. The woman’s pose, holding that large vase, strikes me as both elegant and…slightly precarious? What strikes you most about it? Curator: Precarious, yes! It's the theatrical pose that gets me—almost like she’s offering the vase to the gods, or perhaps she's about to break into song from a tragic opera! Given it was a cigarette card, meant to be casually collected, I find myself wondering about the performance embedded within this image. What kind of stage was she building for herself, beyond the advertisement? What dreams did this "Miss Lantelme" embody for those glimpsing her on a whim? Editor: That's a great point—the aspirations attached to celebrity! I hadn’t considered the theatricality in that way, more of a static "ideal" than an active performance. The industrial-looking landscape in the background adds another layer, doesn't it? Curator: Absolutely. That smoky backdrop, while faint, grounds her within a specific era of rapid industrial growth. It makes you wonder: is she escaping that grim reality by performing this classical scene, or is she somehow an emblem of it? Like some kind of post-industrial muse! How funny that a cigarette card makes me think such elaborate thoughts. Editor: Haha! So it seems the simple intent—sell cigarettes—evolved into something far richer. I’ll definitely be chewing on that "post-industrial muse" concept. Thanks! Curator: And I on that ghostly, precarious vase. Thanks to *you*!