Card Number 18, cut-out from banner advertising the Opera Gloves series (G29) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes

Art Historical Context

Step into the vibrant world of 1890s advertising with *Card Number 18*, tiny cut-out from a banner promoting Allen & Ginter's Opera series (G29) cigarette inserts. Produced around 1890 by the pioneering American Tobacco Company, this commercial color lithograph measures just 3 1/8 x 1 3/4 inches, designed as collectible ephemera to smokers and fashion enthusiasts alike. Allen & Ginter revolutionized tobacco marketing by embedding colorful trade cards in cigarette packs, sparking a collecting craze that predated modern trading cards. This piece highlights the elegance of opera gloves—a staple of high-society women's attire—blending fashion illustration with bold promotion. Chromolithography, the era's cutting-edge technique, allowed for vivid, mass-produced colors that mimicked fine art while driving consumer desire. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Jefferson R. Burdick Collection, this delicate print offers a glimpse into Gilded Age commerce, where luxury accessories like gloves symbolized femininity and status. A charming survivor of everyday extravagance, it reminds us how advertising wove art into the fabric of daily life.

About the Artist

Allen & Ginter|American Tobacco 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...