Bloodhound, from the Quadrupeds series (N21) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes

Art Historical Context

This charming 1890 color lithograph depicts a bloodhound as part of Allen & Ginter’s Quadrupeds series (N21), a set of small trading cards inserted into cigarette packages. Produced through commercial color lithography, the print measures just 1 ½ by 2 ¾ inches, yet its vivid hues and crisp details made it an appealing collectible for everyday consumers. The card exemplifies how late-nineteenth-century tobacco companies turned advertising ephemera into miniature works of art that brought images of animals, sports, and exotic subjects into ordinary households. Such series reflected the growing popularity of chromolithography, a technique that allowed vibrant, affordable color printing on a mass scale. By featuring familiar yet noble breeds like the bloodhound, the cards combined natural-history interest with the thrill of collecting, encouraging brand loyalty while subtly educating the public about different quadrupeds. Today this delicate print survives in the Metropolitan Museum’s Burdick Collection, a remarkable archive of tobacco ephemera donated by Jefferson R. Burdick. Its presence in a major museum underscores how these once-disposable cards now offer vivid glimpses into Victorian popular culture, printing technology, and the early history of commercial illustration.

About the Artist

Allen & Ginter|Lindner, Eddy & Claus

Allen & Ginter, the pioneering American tobacco firm based in Richmond, Virginia, emerged around 1880 from the partnership of John F. Allen and Lewis Ginter, evolving from Allen's earlier John F. Allen & Company. Allen retired in 1882, succeeded by John Pope, yet the brand endured under Ginter's leadership, employing over 1,100 workers—mostly women—for hand-rolled cigarettes by 1886. Ginter, a Dut...