Two Hearts, from the Playing Cards series (N84) to promote Turkish Cross-Cut Cigarettes for W. Duke, Sons and Co.
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
63.350.204.84.69
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the vibrant world of 19th-century advertising with *Two Hearts*, a charming commercial color lithograph from W. Duke, Sons & Co.'s Playing Cards series (N84). Produced in 1888, this tiny card—measuring just 2¾ x 1½ inches—depicts the two of hearts suit in bold, eye-catching hues, designed to entice smokers of the company's Turkish Cross-Cut Cigarettes. These ephemera were innovative inserts tucked into cigarette packs, transforming everyday tobacco products into collectible treasures. W. Duke, Sons & Co., a leading American tobacco firm during the Gilded Age, revolutionized marketin...
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...