A Crack at the Truth, from the Snapshots from "Puck" series (N128) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Honest Long Cut Tobacco
Medium
Commercial color lithograph
Dimensions
Sheet: 2 1/2 × 4 3/16 in. (6.4 × 10.6 cm)
Classification
Prints|Ephemera
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Jefferson R. Burdick Collection, Gift of Jefferson R. Burdick
Accession Number
63.350.206.128.2
Tags
Art Historical Context
This charming 1888 commercial color lithograph, titled *A Crack at the Truth*, was produced by W. Duke, Sons & Co. as part of their “Snapshots from ‘Puck’” series (N128). Measuring just 2½ by 4⅜ inches, the small card was distributed to promote the company’s Honest Long Cut Tobacco. Created through the vibrant technique of color lithography, it reflects the era’s growing reliance on mass-produced printed ephemera to reach a wide audience of consumers. Issued during the height of the tobacco industry’s innovative marketing campaigns, such cards often featured humorous or satirical imagery draw...
About the Artist
W. Duke, Sons & Co.|Knapp & Company · 1870–1920
**W. Duke, Sons & Co.: Pioneers of Chromolithographic Trade Card Art** W. Duke, Sons & Co., an American tobacco manufacturer, emerged from the entrepreneurial vision of Washington Duke (1820–1905) and his sons in Durham, North Carolina. After the Civil War, Washington abandoned farming in 1874 to join his eldest son, Brodie L. Duke, in the burgeoning tobacco trade, establishing a factory that for...