Reindeer, from Quadrupeds series (N41) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes
Medium
Commercial color lithograph
Dimensions
Sheet: 2 7/8 x 3 1/4 in. (7.3 x 8.3 cm)
Classification
Prints|Ephemera
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Jefferson R. Burdick Collection, Gift of Jefferson R. Burdick
Accession Number
63.350.202.41.43
Rights
Public Domain
Tags
Art Historical Context
This charming small-scale print, titled *Reindeer*, belongs to the Quadrupeds series (N41) produced in 1890 by the American tobacco firm Allen & Ginter. Issued as a collectible card tucked inside cigarette packages, it formed part of a popular marketing strategy that encouraged consumers to gather complete sets featuring animals from around the world. The modest sheet—measuring just under three by three-and-a-quarter inches—reflects the era’s growing fascination with natural history and exotic wildlife, brought into everyday American homes through mass-produced imagery. Created as a commercia...
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...