Silver-Grey Dorking Hen, from the Prize and Game Chickens series (N20) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes 1891

This is an advertisement card for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes, featuring a Silver-Grey Dorking Hen. These cards, popular in the late 19th century, served as both advertising and collectibles, reflecting the Victorian era's fascination with categorizing and displaying the natural world. The Dorking hen, with its distinctive five toes, was a prized breed, embodying the values of agricultural progress and national pride. But consider how the industrial revolution and the rise of consumer culture created new forms of labor, often exploiting women and children. Tobacco companies, like Allen & Ginter, capitalized on these social conditions, using images of idealized rural life to mask the harsh realities of urban labor. This card invites us to reflect on the complex interplay between nature, commerce, and social identity in the late 19th century. It speaks to the ways in which art can both celebrate and obscure the underlying structures of power and inequality.