Card Number 328, Kiralfy Group, from the Actors and Actresses series (N145-3) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Cross Cut Cigarettes
1880s
Medium
Albumen photograph
Dimensions
Sheet: 2 11/16 × 1 3/8 in. (6.8 × 3.5 cm)
Classification
Photographs|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
63.350.208.145.3.109
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the vibrant world of 19th-century advertising with *Card Number 328, Kiralfy Group*, a tiny gem from the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Jefferson R. Burdick Collection. Issued in the 1880s by W. Duke Sons & Co. to promote their Cross Cut Cigarettes, this card belongs to the Actors and Actresses series (N145-3). At just 2 11/16 × 1 3/8 inches, it captures the Kiralfy Group—a troupe of women actresses—in a striking albumen photograph, showcasing the era's fascination with theater stars as marketing icons. Albumen prints, made by coating paper with egg whites sensitized to silver salts, ...
About the Artist
W. Duke, Sons & Co. · 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...