Chinese, Lady of Pekin, from Types of Nationalities (N240) issued by Kinney Bros.
Medium
Commercial color lithograph
Dimensions
Sheet (Folded): 2 11/16 × 1 7/16 in. (6.8 × 3.7 cm) Sheet (Unfolded): 6 7/8 × 1 7/16 in. (17.4 × 3.7 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
Burdick 218, N240.10
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the late 19th century, American tobacco companies like Kinney transformed cigarette packs into treasure troves of collectible art with series like *Types of Nationalities (N240)*, issued around 1890. This commercial color lithograph, *Chinese, Lady of Pek*, is one such card, measuring a petite 6 7/8 × 1 7/16 inches when unfolded. Produced as promotional inserts, these ephemera captured global ethnic diversity—or Western interpretations of it—appealing to collectors during the Gilded Age boom in consumer culture. Chromolithography, the medium here, was a breakthrough technique allowing vivi...
About the Artist
Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company · 1869–2011
**Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company (1869–2011)** Founded around 1869 by Francis Sherwood Kinney in New York City, the Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company quickly rose to prominence in the burgeoning American cigarette industry. Francis, a pioneering tobacco manufacturer, experimented with hand-rolled cigarettes using blends of Turkish and Virginia tobacco, scaling to mass production by employing Europ...