R. B. Mantel Dressed as Polish General, from the set Actors and Actresses, Second Series (N71) for Duke brand cigarettes
Medium
Commercial color lithograph
Dimensions
Sheet: 2 3/4 x 1 1/2 in. (7 x 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
63.350.204.71.8
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the vibrant world of late 19th-century advertising with *R. B. Mantel Dressed as Polish General*, charming commercial color lithograph from the "Actors and Actresses, Series (N71)" by W. Duke, & Co. around 8–90. Produced by Knapp & Company, tiny card (just 2 3/4 x 1 1/2 inches) captures actor R B. Mantel in dramatic military attire, evoking the theatrical flair of the Gilded Age stage. Printed in the Prints and Ephemera department at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, it hails from the renowned Jefferson R Burdick Collection. Chromolithography, the innovative technique here, allowed fo...
About the Artist
W. Duke, Sons & Co.|Knapp & 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...