Unsofisticated, from the Snapshots from "Puck" series (N128) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Honest Long Cut Tobacco
Medium
Commercial color lithograph
Dimensions
Sheet: 4 3/16 × 2 1/2 in. (10.6 × 6.4 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
63.350.206.128.25
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the vibrant world of 19th-century American advertising with *Unsofisticated*, a commercial color lithograph from 1888 *Snapshots from "Puck"* series (N128). Issued by. Duke, Sons & Co. and printed by Knapp & Company, tiny ephemera—measuring just 4 3/16 × 2 1/2 inches—was tucked into packs of Honest Long Cut Tobacco entice collectors and promote the brand. Drawing from the satirical humor of *Puck* magazine, it captures profiles of men in a drinking scene, playfully titled to evoke rustic simplicity or folly. Chromolithography, the medium here, was a breakthrough technique allowing v...
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...