Firescreen with Japanese design, from the Novelties series (N228, Type 3) issued by Kinney Bros.

Art Historical Context

This delightful little firescreen, titled *Firescreen with Japanese design* from Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company's Novelties series (N, Type 3), the whimsical spirit of 1889 advertising ephemera. Produced as a promotional insert for cigarette packs, this tiny round chromolithograph—measuring just 1 9/16 inches acrossexemplifies how tobacco companies like Kinney Bros. enticed collectors with colorful, novelty cards. Chromolithography, a pioneering color printing technique, allowed for vibrant, mass-produced images that rivaled fine art in hue and detail, making luxury motifs accessible to everyday smokers. The design draws on the era's Japonisme craze, evoking Japanese aesthetics with elegant motifs of birds and women gracefully integrated into a firescreen form. These small, ornate screens were fashionable household items in Victorian homes, shielding faces from hearth flames while adding decorative flair. Tags highlight the central figures—likely poised women amid exotic birds—blending Eastern delicacy with Western commercial appeal. Today, preserved in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Jefferson R. Burdick Collection, this ephemera underscores the cultural fusion of Gilded Age consumerism and global artistic exchange. A charming snapshot of how everyday objects became coveted collectibles!

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...