Manfredo, from National Dances (N225, Type 2) issued by Kinney Bros.
Medium
Commercial color lithograph
Dimensions
Sheet: 2 3/4 × 1 1/2 in. (7 × 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, N225.114
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the late 19th century, American tobacco companies like Kinney Brothers the use of colorful collectible cards as promotional inserts in cigarette packages, everyday ephemera into coveted treasures. *Manfredo, from Dances (N225, Type 2)*, in 1889, is a prime example from their "National Dances" series This petite commercial color lithograph (2 3/4 × 1 1/2 in.) captures a graceful female dancer in mid-performance, evoking the exotic allure of international folk traditions during an era of global fascination with cultural spectacles. Chromolithography, the innovative printing technique employe...
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...