Marble, "Knock down, Shoot hard across the box," from the Terrors of America set (N136) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Honest Long Cut Tobacco 1888 - 1889

Editor: Here we have “Marble, 'Knock down, Shoot hard across the box,' from the Terrors of America set,” printed by Duke Sons & Co. in the late 1880s as a promotional piece for Honest Long Cut Tobacco. It's so…charming. I mean, it depicts kids playing marbles! What do you make of it? Curator: Charming, indeed! And intentionally so, I suspect. It’s all sunshine and…well, not quite rainbows, but daisies aplenty around the scene. Tell me, does it strike you as odd at all that a tobacco company used an image like this to entice customers? What tensions might be at play? Editor: It does feel like a bit of a mismatch. Kids' games to sell tobacco? It's so strange. Almost as strange as having them in a collection called 'Terrors of America'. What terrors do children at play represent? Curator: Perhaps the terror of innocence lost, the swift march of time, childhood fleeting... Or, on a lighter note, maybe the terror *is* losing your marbles in a game? What I find most compelling is how everyday moments are captured within this idealized framework, bordered by these almost aggressively cheerful floral designs. It's both nostalgic and strangely unsettling. I feel almost complicit in peddling tobacco myself for seeing this idyllic, romantic image. Editor: So, this isn't just about a simple game. It’s wrapped up in ideas of lost innocence and...selling tobacco, which feels gross now that I think about it. Curator: Exactly! It’s a complex concoction. It has me thinking...perhaps that unsettling feeling *is* the point. Editor: I didn’t expect so much from a tobacco advertisement. Now I’m going to spend hours wondering if anyone felt guilty buying tobacco because of it. Curator: And isn't that the magic of art?