Luiz I, King of Portugal, from the Rulers, Flags, and Coats of Arms series (N126-1) issued by W. Duke, Sons & Co. 1888

This small printed card depicting Luiz I, King of Portugal, was produced by W. Duke, Sons & Co. as part of a series of tobacco cards. It is made of paper, printed with chromolithography, a color printing technique using multiple lithographic stones. The card presents a portrait of King Luiz I, alongside the coat of arms and the flag of Portugal, reflecting an era of burgeoning nationalism and global trade. But here, these are flattened out by mechanical reproduction, literally pressed into service to sell a commodity. These cards were collected and traded, acting as miniature billboards for ‘Honest Long Cut’ tobacco. The chromolithography process, while innovative for its time, involved a division of labor, with skilled artisans creating the images, and factory workers churning them out en masse. The value of the artwork lies in its ability to capture a moment in time, where art, commerce, and national identity converged, and also to remind us that mass production often obscures the human labor behind it.