Pikeman, Palace Guard, Turkey, 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, N224.602
Tags
Art Historical Context
This vibrant commercial color lithograph, titled *Pikeman, Palace, Turkey*, is a gem from the Military Series (N224) by the Kinney Brothers Company in 1888 Issued with Sweet Caporal Cigarettes these tiny cards—measuring just 2 3/4 × 1 1/2 inches—were designed to captivate collectors and boost sales. Depicting a stern profile of a Turkish palace guard wielding a spear, it evokes the exotic allure of Ottoman military, blending historical portraiture with bold advertising. Lithography, a revolutionary printing technique of the era, enabled the mass production of vivid, multi-colored images on ch...
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...