comics

THE ECLECTIC ART OF TOBACCO CARDS

By Ron Evans

Commercial art and illustration has come a long way in terms of being acknowledged for its artistic merit - separate from its impact as its intended use. The artists that created these works have been somewhat less acknowledged. There are old catalogs featuring hundreds of intricately crafted hand-drawings, gouache paintings and etchings depicting anything from sewing machines, automobiles and rifles, to hamburgers, lingerie and cocktail menus. Who made those? In most cases, there’s no way to even begin to find out. The artists were hired. They made stuff. They got paid -usually in peanuts-, and they went away. Sure these names lived in some Rolodex (or whatever existed before the invention of the Rolodex by Zephyr America in 1956. I looked it up.) on some desk at some businesses at some point, but preserving these unsung craftspeople for posterity was hardly a priority. Or even a thought.

One of the legions of industries of these incredible but nameless artists was the world of tobacco cards — collectible trading cards that came inserted with each pack of cigarettes. In the early days of cigarette packing (long before the invention of the hardpack) tobacco companies were hearing far too many complaints about their fine, cancer causing products not faring well in one’s pocket or purse. Too flimsy. So…they began inserting a plain white card into the packaging to add a bit of rigidity without adding too much to their shipping costs. You know the little white index card under your Twinkies? Same idear. And admit it…you scraped your Twinkie cards. It’s only shameful if you deny it.

In 1887, one shrewd business-minded fella at US tobacco co., Allen & Ginter, thought that since they were going to the trouble to insert the cards they may as well print some neat shit on them. Advertisements at first. Then random celebrities like sports players, stars of the theatre, famous Indian chiefs and pinups. But in 1893, cancer merchants, John Player & Sons (if you don’t recognize these names that’s because at this point in time there were over 300 tobacco companies, unlike the 3 or 4 giants we all know today) put a twist on the printed card idea when they printed their first full collectible series of picture cards, “Castles And Abbeys.”

From there other cigarette companies followed suit and soon there were not just cards of the stars of the Chicago Cubs, but the whole team. Entire sets of movie stars, royalty from far off lands, oddities and freaks, and legends of the Old West. You only got one card per pack so if you wanted the complete collection (most were from 50-100 cards in all) you best get to smokin’ them sticks. It was a marketing scheme for the ages. These companies knew this would sell more packs to smokers, but they couldn’t have foreseen how many collectors would buy the packs just for the prize. And since they were buying them…well, they may as well smoke the damn things, right? And smoke they did. Sort of like those waxy, stale pieces of bubble gum that always came with each pack of collector trading cards (which were an evolution of cigarette cards) that nobody really wanted. But it was there so...chompy chompy.

And with the invention of the bigger, less cancery trading cards - the tobacco card faded away by the 1950s.

The most valuable tobacco card sold to date, is the T206 Honus Wagner (Pittsburg Pirate - shown below) that sold for well over 3 million in 2016. And while many of the artists and photographers who created the images are documented - the overwhelming majority of these creators’ identities are unknown. Lost to time. No respect I tells ya. C