Red-headed Bunting, from the Song Birds of the World series (N42) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes 1890

The Allen and Ginter company produced this chromolithograph of a Red-headed Bunting as part of their Song Birds of the World series, distributed with cigarette packs. Chromolithography was a revolutionary printing technique that allowed for mass production of affordable, colorful images. This involved creating separate lithographic stones for each color, and then carefully layering them to achieve the final image. Look closely, and you can almost see the individual layers and the slight misalignments that are characteristic of the process. What's interesting is how this image became a commodity itself, wrapped in the packaging of another commodity. Consider the labor involved: from the artists and engravers who created the images to the factory workers who printed and packaged them, this little card speaks volumes about the industrialization of both art and leisure in the late 19th century. This challenges our conventional ideas around art, opening our eyes to the cultural and social context in which it was produced and consumed.