Maharajah of Gwalior, India, from the Savage and Semi-Barbarous Chiefs and Rulers series (N189) issued by Wm. S. Kimball & Co. 1888

Curator: Here we have a piece entitled "Maharajah of Gwalior, India," part of the "Savage and Semi-Barbarous Chiefs and Rulers" series created around 1888 by William S. Kimball & Co. It's currently held at The Met. Quite the name for a series, isn't it? Editor: It is! My first thought seeing it: whimsical but…exoticizing, definitely. The colors are charming—powdery blues and golds. The floral details around his neck and head give him a kingly, festive air, wouldn’t you say? Like a playing card, almost. Curator: Well, these were trade cards, intended to be collected from cigarette packs! Mass-produced, inexpensive chromolithographs—color prints—capitalizing on global curiosity. Consider the means of production: the tobacco industry appropriating and commodifying images of global rulers, reducing them to mere collectibles for the consumer market. Editor: So it's about trade, global capitalism and representation all at once. Interesting... You're right; thinking about that it has darker tones. How different would this man see himself? His beard seems very self-aware but also somehow masked...a projection? Curator: Exactly! These images circulated widely, contributing to an uneven exchange between the West and other cultures. Kimball & Co. made their profit circulating the world's rulers as caricatures of themselves through mass manufacturing techniques that are then mass consumed. There's a social layer that goes overlooked beyond the man's direct depiction, a cultural agenda at play. Editor: So the image isn’t *just* a portrait; it is an object enmeshed in social relations, in a production line, as raw material transformed to profit… I like that reframing! Makes the initial quaintness much more complex, more uncomfortable and definitely thought-provoking. I'm left wondering if he knew his face was peddling tobacco to Western audiences. Curator: Precisely. A sobering reflection on image-making and its links to global economies of power. Editor: Yeah, definitely takes away from my playing-card daydream, good looking out!