Pile Game Cock, from the Prize and Game Chickens series (N20) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes 1891

This "Pile Game Cock" card was made by the Allen & Ginter company as part of a series included in their cigarette packs. It’s a chromolithograph, a now-archaic printmaking technique involving a series of stones, each inked with a different color and printed in careful register. Consider the cultural context: mass-produced images like this one fueled a craze for collecting. It also gave rise to advertising as an art form. With its vibrant colors and attention to detail, the card elevates the status of the gamecock breed, associating it with leisure and luxury. But the card also points to a darker side of 19th-century commerce. Tobacco was often cultivated using enslaved or exploited labor, and industries like Allen & Ginter grew rich by commodifying both addiction and the natural world. So next time you light up, remember the complex web of materials, making, and social context that went into even the smallest of objects.