Flat Bottomed Sailboat, from the Types of Vessels series (N139) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Honest Long Cut Tobacco
Medium
Commercial color lithograph
Dimensions
Sheet (Irregular): 2 7/16 × 4 3/16 in. (6.2 × 10.6 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
63.350.207.139.1
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the late 19th century, American tobacco companies like W. Duke, Sons & Co. revolutionized with colorful trade cards and inserts, turning everyday products into collectibles. This charming *Flat Bottomed Sailboat from the *Types of* series (N139), was issued in 1889 promote Honest Long Cut Tobacco Produced as a commercial color lithograph by Knapp & Company, the small card (just 2 7/16 × 4 3/16 inches) depicts a sturdy, shallow-draft vessel ideal for calm inland waters or coastal trade, evoking the era's fascination with maritime life. Lithography, a key printing innovation of the time, all...
About the Artist
W. Duke, Sons & Co.|Knapp & Company · 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...