Puzzle Card Number 1, from the Jokes series (N118) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Honest Long Cut Tobacco 1887 - 1891

Editor: Here we have Puzzle Card Number 1, from the Jokes series by W. Duke Sons & Co., likely printed sometime between 1887 and 1891. It was made to promote Honest Long Cut Tobacco. It strikes me as being almost psychedelic with its bold colours and strange pattern! What do you see in it? Curator: From a materialist perspective, it’s fascinating how this simple card reveals so much about late 19th-century production and consumption. We should be thinking about the process: mass production of tobacco products fueling a demand for advertising, this cheap print intended as disposable, yet preserved as art. What kind of labor created this? Editor: That’s interesting! So you’re less interested in the artistic style and more in the context of its creation and distribution? Curator: Exactly. Think about the industrial printing processes. This wasn’t some hand-crafted, unique piece. It's a multiple. The Art Nouveau flourishes feel almost ironic when you consider their use to sell mass-produced tobacco. Is it "high" art or just effective marketing through graphics? Does it transcend its intended use? Editor: It definitely makes me think about advertising differently! I never considered the labor that went into making it and the economic factors behind it. Curator: Precisely! Consider the intended audience, the methods of production, the very paper it’s printed on... those elements arguably shape our understanding even more than any aesthetic reading might. Editor: Wow, I’m certainly going to look at things like this with new eyes. Thanks! Curator: My pleasure. Considering art in relation to its material existence reveals important insight.