Card Number 32, Annie Robe, from the Actors and Actresses series (N145-4) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Cameo Cigarettes 1880s

Curator: Up next, we have card number 32 from the "Actors and Actresses" series (N145-4), a promotional card issued by Duke Sons & Co. in the 1880s to promote Cameo Cigarettes, currently housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The card features a portrait of Annie Robe. Editor: Oh, how dreamy! It's got this incredibly soft, almost ghostly quality to it. She’s enveloped in what looks like an ethereal robe, those sleeves just floating. There is something haunting about it; that slightly faded sepia tone just adds to the vintage charm. Curator: Absolutely. These cards were immensely popular at the time, and as you mentioned, their soft, sepia-toned photographic printing process has lent them a somewhat melancholic quality. It’s worth remembering these weren’t considered 'art' then but rather ephemera, mass-produced for marketing purposes, reflecting the rising consumer culture of the late 19th century. Editor: You’re right, it is marketing material! Yet, there's something deeply artistic about capturing a person’s essence, distilling it onto such a small surface. Looking closely, I can see an elegance of design with a sense of Japonisme – the simplicity of the background contrasting with her detailed, slightly stylized costume. The cigarette company might not have realised, but it had one eye on aesthetic beauty! Curator: The adoption of artistic approaches like portraiture—here combined with emergent photographic technologies—legitimized the brand, subtly associating it with refinement. Circulating these images within a rapidly growing consumer market shows the changing function of images in everyday life. The democratization of celebrity and images! Editor: Exactly. I love that an everyday object becomes this window into history—fashion, theatre, marketing! For a tiny rectangle, it feels unexpectedly expansive, like a miniature stage. I imagine the life this image once had and the hands through which it has passed. It seems so precious. Curator: A fascinating thought. The cigarette card also brings to mind issues of consumption and commodity culture and, yes, human fragility and endurance! Thank you. Editor: My pleasure. It has truly opened my eyes to the delicate balance of consumerism and unexpected beauty.