Drum, from the Novelties series (N228, Type 4) issued by Kinney Bros.
Medium
Commercial color lithograph
Dimensions
Sheet: 2 1/8 × 1 1/2 in. (5.4 × 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
Burdick 218, N228.133
Tags
Art Historical Context
This petite chromolithograph, titled *Drum* from Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company's Novelties series (N228, Type 4), captures the vibrant world of 1880s American advertising. Issued in 1889, it measures just 2 1/8 × 1 1/2 inches, designed as a collectible insert in cigarette packs to entice smokers and budding hobbyists. The Kinney Brothers, prominent tobacco manufacturers, produced these ephemera to promote their brand amid fierce market competition, blending novelty with mass appeal. Rendered in vivid commercial color lithography—a pioneering technique for affordable, multi-hued prints—the c...
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...