Master at Arms, United States Navy, 1886, from the Military Series (N224) issued by Kinney Tobacco Company to promote Sweet Caporal Cigarettes
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, N224.68
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the late 19th century, American tobacco like the Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company marketing by inserting colorful trading cards into cigarette packs. This petite commercial color lithograph, *Master at Arms, United Navy, 1886*, is one such gem from their Military Series (N224), in 1888 to promote Caporal Cigarettes. just 2¾ × 1½ inches, it depicts a stern naval petty officer—a "Master at Arms" responsible for shipboard discipline and security—capturing the era's fascination with military prowess amid America's growing naval power. Chromolithography, the printing technique used here, allowed...
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...