Baden, from Flags of All Nations, Series 2 (N10) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes Brands
1890
Medium
Commercial color lithograph
Dimensions
Sheet: 2 3/4 x 1 1/2 in. (7 x 3.8 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
63.350.201.10.5
Tags
Art Historical Context
This charming small-scale print belongs to "Flags of All Nations, Series 2," a set of collectible cards issued in 1890 by the American tobacco firm Allen & Ginter. Measuring just 2¾ by 1½ inches, the card features the coat of arms and flag of Baden, then a grand duchy in southwestern Germany. Produced as a premium to accompany packs of cigarettes, such cards encouraged customers to assemble complete sets depicting the world’s nations—an early form of the trading cards we know today. The image was created through commercial color lithography, a technique that allowed bright, precise reproducti...
About the Artist
Allen & Ginter
Allen & Ginter, the pioneering American tobacco firm based in Richmond, Virginia, emerged around 1880 from the partnership of John F. Allen and Lewis Ginter, evolving from Allen's earlier John F. Allen & Company. Allen retired in 1882, succeeded by John Pope, yet the brand endured under Ginter's leadership, employing over 1,100 workers—mostly women—for hand-rolled cigarettes by 1886. Ginter, a Dut...