A Good Catch, from the Talk of the Diamond set (N135) issued by Duke Sons & Co., a branch of the American Tobacco Company 1888

This small chromolithograph, "A Good Catch," was created by W. Duke, Sons & Co., around the turn of the 20th century as part of a series of baseball cards included in cigarette packs. The image plays on the phenomenon of wealthy American heiresses marrying European nobility. On the right, we see European royals offering crowns to an American heiress, who stands confidently with a vault of dollars and gold behind her. On the left, a baseball player, the first American man represented, gazes at her, seemingly out of reach. The card reflects the complex interplay of wealth, class, and gender in transatlantic marriages, which offered financial security to European aristocrats and social status to American women. There's a palpable tension in the image. The baseball player, the epitome of American masculinity, is sidelined, while the heiress, adorned but self-assured, is the prize. The narrative is both celebratory and critical, acknowledging the transactional nature of these unions and the shifting power dynamics between the New World and the Old.