Vice-Brigadier, Foot Carbineers, Italy, 1886, from the Military Series (N224) issued by Kinney Tobacco Company to promote Sweet Caporal Cigarettes
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, N224.506
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the world of 19th-century tobacco promotions with this petite chromolithograph, *Vice-Brigadier, Carbineers, Italy, 1886*, from Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company's Military Series (N224). Produced in 1888 to advertise Sweet Caporal Cigarettes, this2¾ × 1½-inch card captures a stern Italian officer in full uniform, carbine at the ready—evoking the disciplined elegance of Europe's elite foot carbineers, light infantry skilled in skirmishing and musketry. Chromolithography, the era's vibrant printing technique, allowed mass production of these colorful inserts, tucked into cigarette pack...
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...