Card Number 62, The Modern Puck, from the Actors and Actresses series (N145-4) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Cameo Cigarettes 1880s

This card, one of a series made to promote Cameo Cigarettes by Duke Sons & Co. between 1870 and 1920, is a mass-produced object through and through. It uses the photo-mechanical process of lithography, and was designed as a collectible trading card that was originally inserted in cigarette packs. The card depicts an actor dressed in an odd interpretation of Shakespeare’s Puck, an impish character from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The figure wears a fur hat, boots, and little else, while holding a strange oar or paddle. The image is staged, and printed en masse to create desire. Everything about this card is intended to sell you something – whether cigarettes, an idea of the theatre, or a promise of novelty. This little card speaks volumes about the industrialization of culture, and how it insinuates itself into our lives as consumers. We can appreciate its strange design and the skill of the printing process, while acknowledging its part in the wider social and economic context of early consumer culture.