Card Number 14, cut-out from banner advertising the Opera Gloves series (G29) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes 1885 - 1895

Curator: What an unusual visual! The immediate effect is strangely appealing...a muted palette within an ornate border—like a Victorian fever dream. Editor: Indeed! Today we're looking at "Card Number 14, cut-out from banner advertising the Opera Gloves series (G29) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes," dating from somewhere between 1885 and 1895. You can find it here at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. And it's more than just an image; it is a commercial card. Let's consider the tobacco industry during this period and the marketing strategies they employed. This card acted as a token, often collected and traded, furthering the brand's visibility. Curator: Focusing on its visual elements, I find this pictorial organization truly striking. We have a colored lithograph of an opera glove. Within this, we observe what appears to be a portrait of a woman wearing fine attire. The whole card itself is bordered by an oval dotted pattern, almost beaded in effect. The textural rendering is quite superb for the era. It draws you in close. Editor: And it reveals an implicit hierarchy. The woman, arguably the central image, becomes commodified and then nested within a glove meant for upper-class fashion. It represents aspirational values directly tied to consuming Allen & Ginter cigarettes. How are those values represented materially? Are they made tangible in the texture and layering that define high society? Curator: It seems like a double-portrait—both the glove and the portrait receive similar detail. This prompts the question: what kind of hand wears the glove, and whose likeness does the glove protect? Are these elements combined to highlight the prestige associated with wearing such fine gloves? It is through this prestige that the product gains appeal and value. Editor: Fascinatingly, this card makes direct visual connections between consumption, aspiration, and social class. The advertisement creates its narrative. What seems initially a piece of ephemera is a powerful conveyor of socio-economic messaging. It makes one rethink what’s at stake in its exchange. Curator: Absolutely. I’ll now look at similar portrait art with these fresh ideas in mind. Thank you for shifting my viewing experience!