Biscay, from the City Flags series (N6) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes Brands
1887
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
63.350.201.6.7
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the late 19th century, American tobacco companies like Allen & G revolutionized marketing by inserting collectible cards into cigarette packs, sparking a nationwide craze for trading and album-building. This petite chromolithograph, *Biscay, from the City Flags series (N)*, issued in 1887, that innovation. Measuring just 2¾ x 1½ inches, it vividly depicts the flag of Bisc—a historic province in northern Spain—using bold colors and precise detailing typical of commercial color lithography, a technique that allowed mass production of eye-catching, multi-hued prints at affordable costs. As pa...
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...