Number 3, Transfixed Cards, from the Tricks with Cards series (N138) issued by W. Duke, Sons & Co. to promote Honest Long Cut Tobacco
Medium
Commercial color lithograph
Dimensions
Sheet: 4 3/16 × 2 1/2 in. (10.6 × 6.4 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
63.350.207.138.3
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the whimsical world of 19th-century advertising with *Number 3, Transfixed Cards* from the *Tricks with Cards* series (N138), a vibrant commercial color lithograph produced in 1887 by W. Duke, Sons & Co., with printing by The Giles Company. This pocket-sized gem (4 3/16 × 2 1/2 in.) captures a magical illusion: playing cards dramatically pierced by swords, held by deft hands, evoking the era's fascination with sleight-of-hand and parlor tricks. Issued to promote "Honest Long Cut Tobacco," it was one of many collectible trade cards designed to entice smokers and hobbyists alike. Chro...
About the Artist
W. Duke, Sons & Co.|The Giles 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...