Silky Hen, from the Prize and Game Chickens series (N20) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes 1891

This is an advertisement card, part of a series of prize-winning chickens, printed by Allen & Ginter for their cigarettes. The card is chromolithographed, meaning that its full-color image was built up through multiple layers of ink, applied with lithographic stones. This process allowed for mass production, fitting perfectly with Allen & Ginter’s need for thousands upon thousands of these cards. The result has a soft, almost painterly effect, but don't be fooled. This was industrial work, part of a whole system of production and distribution. It pictures an elite breed of chicken. These images, traded with cigarettes, were a kind of reward for partaking in another kind of mass-produced pleasure. The card is small and light and cheap, but it's also a window onto the complex interplay of labor, status, and consumption in the late nineteenth century.