Palace Guard, Russia, 1886, from the Military Series (N224) issued by Kinney Tobacco Company to promote Sweet Caporal Cigarettes 1888

Editor: Here we have "Palace Guard, Russia, 1886," a colored-pencil print from the Military Series of Kinney Tobacco Company. The guard's poised stance strikes me as both formal and a bit comical, somehow… it's like he's trying a bit too hard to look serious. What catches your eye when you look at this image? Curator: Oh, darling, isn't he fabulous? For me, it's the sheer absurdity of it all. This stiff, brightly-colored soldier advertising…cigarettes! The collision of military grandeur and everyday vice. I wonder if people seeing it those days chuckled, the same way we do when seeing vintage ads. The colours pop in a peculiar way, don't they? Like a toy soldier dreamt up by a confectioner. Editor: Absolutely! And the stark contrast between the soldier and the product being advertised—did it intend to playfully subvert military authority? Or perhaps idealize it, aligning smoking with the supposedly dignified life of a soldier? Curator: Maybe it was both, perhaps without even knowing it. Doesn’t it tickle you how they used 'high art', in the loosest of senses, to move some tobacco? Almost as though it was supposed to give your drags some refined cultural aftertaste... Or just an appeal to patriotism in some peculiar way, perhaps? A cigarette could almost feel like enlisting in the Tsarist army, minus the actual fighting! I’m kidding… slightly. What about that expression though? It could start a war...or sell a thousand packets. Editor: Definitely food for thought – seeing advertising not just as commerce, but as a weird sort of cultural mirror. Curator: Precisely! And in a way, this little print whispers volumes about its time and maybe also… ours.