Brown-Breasted Red Game Cock, from the Prize and Game Chickens series (N20) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes

Art Historical Context

This charming 1891 color lithograph depicts a proud Brown-Breasted Red Game Cock as part of Allen & Ginter’s “Prize and Game Chickens” series (N20), issued to promote the company’s cigarettes. Measuring just 1 ½ by 2 ¾ inches, the card was designed to be collected from cigarette packs, turning an everyday purchase into an opportunity for education and entertainment. Produced through commercial color lithography by the Gast Lithograph & Engraving Company, the image captures the rooster’s striking plumage with vibrant, precise detail suited to mass production. In the late nineteenth century, tobacco manufacturers like Allen & Ginter pioneered the use of colorful trading cards to build brand loyalty. These small prints introduced the public to subjects ranging from animals and sports to world cultures, making colorful imagery widely accessible long before widespread color photography. The series reflects the era’s fascination with poultry breeding and competitive exhibitions, when game cocks were celebrated for their form and vigor. Today, this card belongs to the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Jefferson R. Burdick Collection of printed ephemera. It offers a window into both the history of commercial printing and the popular pastimes of the 1890s, preserving a delightful example of how art once traveled in a smoker’s pocket.

About the Artist

Allen & Ginter|The Gast Lithograph & Engraving Company

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...