Sweet Caporal cigarette cards

The Maker

The Kinney Tobacco Company was one of America’s leading cigarette manufacturers during the nineteenth century, merging into the American Tobacco Company in 1890. It was responsible for the creation of the ‘Sweet Caporal’ cigarette brand, and became particularly famous due to its innovative advertising method. During the 1880s, it created and issued a wide range of playing and trading cards featuring everything from horses to actresses, military paraphernalia to butterflies.

The Cards

Most successful among the Kinney Tobacco Company’s marketing cards were the Harlequin Cards; to receive a complimentary deck, one simply had to collect and send in 100 wrappers from Kinney’s various tobacco products. The deal was hugely popular, and the cards were in great demand, no doubt due to their comical nature.

The court cards show the traditional full-length royal characters engaged in unconventional activities: the Queen of Hearts plays the banjo, while the King of Diamonds counts his money. The Queen of Clubs is shown taking a swig from a flask, while the Queen of Diamonds examines a diamond-shaped jewel. Each suit follows a theme, with Clubs associated with alcohol, Diamonds with wealth, Hearts with music and Spades, rather more virtuously, with gardening.

The pip cards show all manner of bizarre and humorous scenes, with the suit marks forming key parts of the main image. Some centre around puns, such as the Five of Hearts, which shows chefs with heartshaped faces busy cooking, labelled ‘A Hearty Dinner’, and the Two of Hearts, which shows a cock-fight between chickens with heart-shaped bodies, entitled ‘Two Brave Hearts’.

Despite their popularity, the present cards are very rare.

[ANONYMOUS]

[French caricature playing cards].

Publication [Paris, Palmier, ?c1890].

Description

32 engraved playing cards with fine original hand-colour, versos plain.

Dimensions

83 by 51mm (3.25 by 2 inches).

References Van den Bergh p.212.