Polish Mazurka, from National Dances (N225, Type 1) 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, N225.65
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the vibrant world of 19th-century advertising with *Polish Mazurka, National Dances (N, Type 1)*, a delightful chromolithograph produced by the Kinney Brothers Company in 1889 This petite card, measuring just 2 3/4 × 1 1/2 inches, captures elegant women in flowing dresses mid-dance, evoking the lively rhythms of the Polish mazurka—a folk dance rose to international fame in ballrooms across Europe and America. Issued as inserts in tobacco products, these cards were designed to entice collectors, transforming everyday cigarette packs into treasures of visual delight. Chromolithography...
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...