Jack Avery, Capturing Ship of the Great Mogul, from the Pirates of the Spanish Main series (N19) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes 1886 - 1891

Editor: This print, "Jack Avery, Capturing Ship of the Great Mogul," dates to around 1890 and comes from a series made for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes. It's rendered in colored pencil, and there’s something almost…fantastical about it. What is your take on a work like this? Curator: What strikes me immediately is its existence as a commercial product. Cigarette cards, like this one, were essentially miniature advertisements masquerading as collectibles. Consider how this image of a pirate, someone operating outside the bounds of law and order, becomes sanitized and romanticized. It reflects a broader societal fascination with the exotic and dangerous, filtered through a lens of Victorian morality and consumer culture. Editor: So, the violence depicted, it's almost…staged? Curator: Precisely. And who is consuming this imagery? It's likely a middle-class audience, participating in a culture of collecting and display, which also shapes their understanding of history and morality. How does the print medium impact its distribution? Editor: The cigarette card medium made the art extremely accessible compared to a gallery showing or privately commissioned portrait, right? The art is reproduced and distributed widely through commercial networks. Curator: Exactly. And the relatively small size encourages intimate viewing and individual ownership, shifting it away from the traditional grand narratives presented in history painting, yet solidifying specific interpretations in people's minds. What message do you think these cards imparted to the ordinary person? Editor: Maybe it provided a sense of adventure without risk, a sanctioned form of rebellion viewed safely within societal constraints? I see how understanding its original function transforms the way we perceive it today. Curator: Precisely. Studying the socio-political implications embedded within something as seemingly trivial as a cigarette card reveals a great deal about cultural values.