Six Spades (black), from the Playing Cards series (N84) 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
63.350.204.84.46
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the vibrant world of 19th-century American advertising with *Six Spades (black)*, a petite color lithograph from the N84 Playing Cards series produced by W. Duke, Sons & Co. in 1888. This card, measuring just 2¾ x 1½ inches, the classic six of spades in stark black against a vivid backdrop, part of a promotional insert tucked into Duke cigarette packs. These ephemeral gems were designed to entice smokers, turning everyday tobacco into a collector's thrill. Duke's innovative marketing transformed the tobacco industry, pioneering chromolithographed trading cards as incentives—a strate...
About the Artist
W. Duke, Sons & Co. · 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...