Eight Spades (black), from the Playing Cards series (N84) for Duke brand cigarettes
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
63.350.204.84.48
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the vibrant world of 19th-century American advertising with *Eight Spades (black, a gem from the Playing Cards series (N84) produced by W. Duke Sons & Co. in 1888. This petite commercial color lithograph, measuring just 2¾ x 1½ inches, mimics a classic playing card to promote Duke's popular cigarettes. Part of a larger set distributed as trade cards or pack inserts, it captures the spade suit in stark black tones, blending whimsy with bold promotion during the height of the "cigarette wars" when tobacco giants vied for market dominance. Lithography, perfected in the 19th century, en...
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...