Portugal, from the Natives in Costume series (N16), Teofani Issue, for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes Brands

Art Historical Context

This charming commercial color lithograph from around 1886 belongs to the “Natives in Costume” series (N16), issued by Teofani & Company in partnership with the American tobacco firm Allen & Ginter. Measuring just 2¾ by 1½ inches, the card was originally tucked inside cigarette packages as a promotional giveaway, encouraging collectors to assemble sets depicting people from around the world. The small format and bright, printed colors made these cards both affordable and visually appealing souvenirs of the late-nineteenth-century global imagination. Allen & Ginter pioneered the use of colorful trading cards to market their brands, turning an everyday tobacco purchase into a miniature lesson in geography and costume. The Portugal card, like others in the series, presents male figures in regional dress, offering viewers a stylized glimpse of European cultures at a time when international travel remained rare for most Americans. Such ephemera, now preserved in the Metropolitan Museum’s Burdick Collection, reveal how advertising and popular education once overlapped in everyday objects. Color lithography allowed these images to be produced quickly and inexpensively, bringing vivid illustrations into countless households. Today the card stands as a modest yet telling artifact of Victorian marketing, cross-cultural curiosity, and the early history of mass-produced collectibles.

About the Artist

Teofani & Company|Allen & Ginter (American|British) · |1880 – |1940

American, Richmond, Virginia|British