The Tropic Bird, from the Birds of the Tropics series (N5) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes Brands 1889

Curator: Ah, isn’t this a marvel of bygone marketing? What we have here is "The Tropic Bird" a drawing and print enhanced with watercolor from Allen & Ginter's "Birds of the Tropics" series, dating all the way back to 1889. It's a cigarette card, originally tucked into packs. Editor: It feels… surprisingly melancholic, considering it's trying to sell me something. That bird, diving towards the water—it’s so solitary against the muted sunrise, as if it's searching for something lost. Curator: It’s fascinating how these promotional images, designed for mass consumption, were influenced by movements like Japonisme. Editor: You can really see it in the composition and simplified forms—the flattened perspective, the focus on line… But tell me, why this particular bird? Why feature it so prominently? What statement is the patron attempting to project? Curator: Maybe it's about aspiration, luxury, that exotic allure of far-off lands implied in its 'tropic' origin. Or perhaps they responded to the innate symbolic qualities this particular species can represent such as grace and far-sightedness. Tobacco and watercolor seem worlds apart, but then so do we often as artists ourselves! Editor: You know I find that the bird's wings remind me of ukiyo-e prints with the dramatic use of shading—really interesting choice given the explicit commercial intent of the card! Though there isn’t the human element of life and the ephemeral that that genre attempts to grapple with. And I still return to that feeling of melancholy. It is rather unexpected for promotional artwork, I will give you that. Curator: Precisely, it transforms this advertisement into something that speaks to us differently than just its product. I will add that, overall, it just goes to prove that there is almost something strangely… endearing and rather wonderful, don’t you think? Editor: I can’t argue that it provokes deeper, lasting thought that reveals more with each moment in its presence. In the end, these pieces do show how everyday design can sometimes fly far beyond its original purpose.