Mlle. Defailley, from the Actors and Actresses series (N45, Type 8) for Virginia Brights Cigarettes 1885 - 1891

This card, featuring Mlle. Defailley, is from a series of actresses produced by Allen & Ginter to promote Virginia Brights Cigarettes. It's a chromolithograph, a type of color print created using multiple lithographic stones. The process was ingenious: an image was separated into different color components, and each of these was drawn onto a separate stone. Then, the stones were inked and printed in sequence to build up a full-color image. This was cutting-edge technology at the time, but also extremely labor intensive. Just imagine the hours required to produce each card! The card's smooth, slightly glossy surface results from the printing process and reflects the aspirations of the late 19th century, where industrial advancements met burgeoning consumer culture. These cards were cheap, widely distributed, and collected by the masses, blurring the lines between art, advertising, and everyday life. It reminds us that even something as small as a cigarette card can reveal a great deal about the culture and economy that produced it.