Padlock, from the Novelties series (N228, Type 4) issued by Kinney Bros.
Medium
Commercial color lithograph
Dimensions
Sheet: 2 1/16 × 1 7/16 in. (5.3 × 3.7 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, N228.190
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the vibrant world of 19th-century American advertising with *Padlock, from the Novelties (N228, Type 4)*, issued by the Kin Brothers Tobacco Company in 1889. This tiny commercial color lithograph, measuring just over 2 inches tall, was a promotional insert tucked into cigarette packages to entice collectors and boost brand loyalty. Part of a whimsical series featuring playful motifs, it exemplifies the era's booming trade card culture, where tobacco companies competed fiercely with eye-catching ephemera. Printed via color lithography—a revolutionary technique allowing mass productio...
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...