Captain, 6th Inniskilling Dragoons, England, 1879, from the Military Series (N224) issued by Kinney Tobacco Company to promote Sweet Caporal Cigarettes 1888

Editor: This is "Captain, 6th Inniskilling Dragoons, England, 1879" a print made in 1888, from the Kinney Tobacco Company’s Military Series. It looks like it was originally an advertisement for Sweet Caporal Cigarettes. There's something charmingly stiff and posed about the captain, his bright red coat and serious expression. What stands out to you about this portrait? Curator: Well, aside from wondering what "Inniskilling Dragoons" actually do - possibly involving dragons, one can only dream - it’s the peculiar disconnect, isn't it? Here’s this image, meant to evoke military prowess and sell cigarettes, yet it possesses this utterly naive quality, almost as if drawn from a child's storybook. Does that strike you too? The vibrant colours clash a bit, don't they, with the presumed stoicism of a military man. What's *that* all about, I wonder? Editor: Definitely. It’s like a very formal doodle. But do you think that disconnect, as you call it, was intentional, maybe to catch the eye of potential smokers? Curator: Perhaps. These promotional cards, like fleeting dreams tucked within packs of vice, needed to be striking, didn't they? To pull one away from the daily grind, into a moment of idealized adventure… Or maybe the artist just hadn't seen a real dragoon! Which, honestly, is far funnier. Is he romanticizing military life or just wildly missing the mark? Maybe both, in some delightful, accidental synergy. Editor: So it's almost like this image invites us to dream, and perhaps not to take everything at face value. Curator: Precisely! And sometimes the most profound insights come wrapped in the most unlikely packages, don't they? Cigarettes and dream-dragoon captains. The world's a funny place, truly.