Number 1, Vital Cards, from the Tricks with Cards series (N138) issued by W. Duke, Sons & Co. to promote Honest Long Cut Tobacco 1887

This small chromolithograph was made by W. Duke, Sons & Co., around the turn of the century. It’s a promotional card for Honest Long Cut Tobacco, one in a series depicting tricks you could perform with playing cards. Cards like these were cheaply printed, distributed en masse, and ephemeral by design. Here, the surface is smooth and the colors vibrant; the image depicts a hand holding a glass with cards magically rising. The company didn’t employ a fine artist, but rather skilled laborers who could transfer images to printing plates. The image may have been first created as a painting and then reproduced mechanically on a mass scale for mass consumption. These cards existed to drive sales of tobacco, a mass-produced commodity. They are interesting because of their overt connection to commerce and the expansion of capitalism. This art was deeply entwined with labor, advertising, and the marketplace, a far cry from the romantic notion of the artist working in isolation.