Armadillo, from the Quadrupeds series (N21) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes 1890

Curator: Isn't that little armadillo the sweetest thing? Like a tiny, determined tank rolling through a pointillist meadow. Editor: That "pointillist meadow," as you call it, reveals a lithographic process attempting to simulate the atmospheric effects popular at the time. This image, titled "Armadillo" is from the "Quadrupeds" series by Allen & Ginter, printed in 1890 as trade cards for cigarettes. Curator: Cigarettes, huh? I guess even back then, folks needed a little something to ponder the existential mysteries of an armadillo's shell. And there's such a tenderness in its rendering, a celebration of nature in this otherwise mass-produced commodity. Editor: It's interesting how these cards blur the lines between art, advertising, and entertainment. Mass production enables the distribution of images to a wide audience, yet this watercolour illustration, as rendered with coloured pencil and printmaking techniques, remains quite delicate. Think about the labour involved. Curator: Exactly! Someone meticulously crafted that armadillo's texture, scale by delicate scale. And the tiny strokes forming the landscape – it whispers of endless patience, and the sheer joy of capturing that creature. To me it seems almost dreamlike, removed from a grimy, industrial world. Editor: Perhaps, but let's not forget that this image was also designed to promote a product, cigarettes, linking nature with consumption habits and desires within a society where smoking was increasingly commercialised. Curator: Okay, point taken. But there is this longing baked into it all, isn’t there? Like, a need to connect to nature. So, the armadillo then became a symbol for yearning or refuge even. Editor: It’s interesting how everyday items gain symbolic resonance from how they circulate and whom they reach. And it certainly opens the discussion regarding the relationship between industrial labour, visual culture and the natural world. Curator: I'll never look at a cigarette card the same way again. That small rectangular world carries a lot of stories and implications indeed. Editor: Indeed. It causes you to rethink what materials, techniques, or seemingly disposable prints are capable of embodying in an era of expanding industrial outputs.