Item number: C145

Year: AD 1890

Material: Paper

Size: 233 x 153 x 3.5 mm

Manufactured by: Allen & Ginter

Provenance: Deep Roots Bookshop 2025

This album, published by the American firm Allen & Ginter, serves as a compendium for a series of fifty cigarette cards originally distributed as premiums with the company’s tobacco products.

The front cover features a decorative layout positioned towards the left, consisting of a silver border with a red infill that emulates the design of the Iron Cross. Within a central circular frame, the title is rendered in a variety of typographic styles as ‘50 DECORATIONS OF THE PRINCIPAL ORDERS OF Knighthood and Chivalry OF THE WORLD’. Below this, the inscription ‘PUBLISHED BY ALLEN & GINTER RICHMOND, VIRGINIA’ identifies both the publisher, the Allen & Ginter Tobacco Company, and the place of publication. The volume is extensively ornamented in the Victorian style, which occupies the interstices between the primary illustrations and textual information. Renowned for its complexity and ornamental extravagance, this aesthetic draws upon a diverse array of physical objects and historical motifs. The prevalence of the Victorian style originated in Great Britain during the Industrial Revolution; it reflected an elite class anxious about the perceived ‘encroachment’ upon their status by newfound material abundance, as well as a rising middle class eager to appropriate aristocratic symbolism to validate their upward social mobility. This psychological framework perhaps mirrored the attitude of the United States—an emerging industrial power in the late nineteenth century—as it looked towards the established continental powers of Europe.

The subsequent pages of the book provide a systematic presentation of cigarette cards depicting various insignia, each accompanied by a concise historical description. In addition to reiterating the publisher’s details, the back cover enumerates the firm’s diverse product line. These include ‘RICHMOND STRAIGHT CUT NO. 1’, ‘RICHMOND GEM, Curly Cut’, ‘IMPERIAL BIRD’S EYE’, ‘DIXIE, Chop Cut’, ‘OLD RIP, Long Cut’, ‘LOUISIANA PERIQUE’, and ‘RICHMOND CAVENDISH’, alongside blended varieties such as ‘TURKISH PERIQUE AND RICHMOND SMOKING MIXTURES’, ‘ALLEN & GINTER’S IMPERIAL GRANULATED SMOKING MIXTURE’, and the critically acclaimed ‘THE “PET” CIGARETTE TOBACCO’.

During the mid-nineteenth century, farmers in North Carolina and Virginia discovered ‘Bright Leaf’ tobacco on relatively infertile soil. When treated through a ‘flue-curing’ process—utilising furnaces to heat the air—the tobacco leaves acquired a distinctive golden hue. Due to its high sugar content, the smoking experience was significantly milder than that of the pungent traditional varieties, providing the material foundation for cigarettes to eventually supersede cigars and chewing tobacco as the dominant form of mass consumption. Subsequently, Washington Duke founded a family enterprise in AD 1878, which was followed by his son’s establishment of the American Tobacco Company in AD 1890. Through the aggressive acquisition of approximately 150 factories, this monopolistic ‘trust’ not only secured a production advantage via automated cigarette-rolling machines but also absorbed the operations of major competitors such as Allen & Ginter.

While the origins of cigarette cards can be traced to eighteenth-century trade cards used by craftsmen, they initially served merely as functional stiffeners—inserted to reinforce fragile paper packaging—during the latter half of the nineteenth century. This practice remained in a nascent stage in AD 1879, the year marking the appearance of the first identifiable illustrated card, which depicted the Marquess of Lorne. However, the large-scale transformation of these functional inserts into a cultural medium was driven by the rise of Allen & Ginter and James B. Duke. Allen & Ginter was the first to recognise that cigarettes could function as symbols of social status; consequently, they employed chromolithography on an extensive scale to produce exquisite thematic series featuring celebrities, athletes, and heraldic emblems. Following his assumption of the family business, Duke further decided to incorporate vibrant advertisements onto the cards, utilising his formidable market share to establish the ‘cigarette card premium’ as a global industry standard.

Prior to the First World War, in an era when newspapers lacked photographic illustrations and educational opportunities remained limited, these trade cards promoted by major tobacco firms became a ‘window to the world’ for millions. Containing information on geography, natural history, and historical lore, the cards functioned as a repository of knowledge for the general public. Allen & Ginter even sought to align the brand with the Aesthetic Movement by sponsoring lecture tours for literary figures such as Oscar Wilde. This strategy of ‘Corporate Enchantment’—the integration of encyclopaedic knowledge with commercial merchandise—successfully elevated mere addictive consumption into an act associated with education and artistic discernment.

In AD 1902, the American Tobacco Company entered into a partnership with the British firm Imperial Tobacco. Under this arrangement, Imperial Tobacco secured domestic exclusivity and the supply of raw materials, while the American Tobacco Company gained access to overseas channels throughout the British Empire, thereby expanding its business model globally. In China, these cigarette cards became known as ‘yanhua’ (tobacco paintings). In AD 1911, the American tobacco trust was ordered to undergo dissolution after being found in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act due to its monopolistic practices; however, Allen & Ginter was not explicitly listed among the entities to be dismantled. In AD 2006, the trading card manufacturer Topps revived the Allen & Ginter brand name, issuing a diverse range of cards focused primarily on contemporary sporting icons.

物件編號: C145

年代: 公元 1890 年

材質: 紙

尺寸: 233 x 153 x 3.5 mm

製造地: 艾倫金特公司

來源: 深根書店 2025

這是一本由美國煙草公司艾倫金特公司所出版的圖冊，內容為五十張艾倫金特公司旗下香菸產品所附贈香菸卡的介紹。

封面偏左為銀框填紅，模仿鐵十字勳章的圖樣，中央圓框內以各種字體寫出「50 DECORATIONS OF THE PRINCIPAL ORDERS OF Knighthood and Chivalry OF THE WORLD」，即書名「五十枚來自世界上各主要騎士團的飾章」。下方則為「PUBLISHED BY ALLEN & GINTER RICHMOND, VIRGINIA 」即註明出版者「艾倫金特煙草公司」與出版地「里奇蒙，維吉尼亞州」。全書以維多利亞風格裝飾填充主要圖樣及資訊之間的空白。該風格以繁複、誇張的元素使用聞名，元素則來自各類實物與歷史符號。維多利亞風格的流行源自步入工業時代的英國，上層階級因物質的豐富而有被「僭越」的焦慮，而新興的中產階級更是亟於挪用貴族的符號象徵以圖「證明」自身的階級躍遷。或許這樣的心理結構也正符應了十九世紀末新興的工業國，美國，在看待歐陸強權的心態。

其後書中逐頁介紹繪有徽章的香菸卡並介紹並附有對該徽章簡短的介紹。封底除再次註明艾倫金特公司的出版資訊外，也列出了旗下的商品。有「RICHMOND STRAIGHT CUT NO. 1」(里奇蒙一號直切菸草)、「RICHMOND GEM, Curly Cut」(里奇蒙寶石，捲切菸草)、「IMPERIAL BIRD’S EYE」(皇家鳥眼菸草)、「DIXIE, Chop Cut」(狄克西，剁切菸草)、「OLD RIP, Long Cut」(老瑞普，長切菸草)、「LOUISIANA PERIQUE」(路易斯安那州佩里克菸草)以及「RICHMOND CAVENDISH」(里奇蒙卡文迪什菸草)，以及「TURKISH PERIQUE AND RICHMOND SMOKING MIXTURES」(土耳其佩里克與里奇蒙混合菸草)、「ALLEN & GINTER’S IMPERIAL GRANULATED SMOKING MIXTURE」(Allen & Ginter 皇家顆粒混合菸草)與廣受好評的「THE “PET” CIGARETTE TOBACCO」(「寵物」牌香菸草)。

十九世紀中期，美國北卡羅萊納州與維吉尼亞州的農民在貧瘠土地上偶然發現了「亮葉菸草」(Bright Leaf)。將菸葉以透過火爐加熱空氣的「燻製法」處理，呈現出金黃色澤。因糖分較高，吸食感比以往濃烈的傳統菸草更為溫和，為後來香菸取代雪茄與嚼菸奠定了物質基礎。隨後，華盛頓·杜克於公元1878年創立家族公司，並由其子在公元1890年成立美國菸草公司，透過強勢併購約150家工廠形成壟斷性的「托拉斯」，不僅掌握了自動捲菸機的產量優勢，更吸收了如艾倫金特等競爭對手的業務。

香菸卡片的起源可追溯至18世紀工匠的業務名片，但在19世紀後半葉，其最初僅是為了加固脆弱紙包裝而插入的厚紙板。公元1879年，當第一張可確定日期的「Lorne侯爵」圖案卡片出現時，這種做法尚處於萌芽階段。然而，真正將這種功能性支撐物大規模轉化為文化媒介的，是隨後崛起的艾倫金特公司(Allen & Ginter)與詹姆斯·杜克(James B. Duke)。艾倫金特公司率先意識到香菸具備身分象徵的價值，大規模應用彩色石版印刷技術，生產精美的系列卡片，關於名人、球星、徽章等。杜克則在接手家族事業後，進一步決定在卡片中加入色彩豐富的廣告，利用其驚人的市場佔有率將「買菸附卡」推向全球標準。

在第一次世界大戰前，由於報紙缺乏照片且受教育機會有限，這些由大型菸商推動的交換卡成為數百萬人通往世界的窗戶。卡片內容涵蓋地理、自然與歷史知識，成為大眾的知識寶庫。艾倫金特公司甚至透過資助奧斯卡·王爾德等文人巡迴演講，將品牌與「唯美主義」連結，這種將百科全書知識與商品結合的「企業誘惑」(Corporate Enchantment)，成功將純粹的成癮消費提升為具備教育性與藝術品味的行為。

公元1902年，美國煙草公司與英國的帝國菸草公司合作，帝國煙草公司取得國內的獨佔權與原材料的供給。美國煙草公司則取得英國殖民帝國的海外渠道，以此將商業模式擴張全球。在中國，香菸卡被稱為「煙畫」。

公元1911年，美國菸草托拉斯因壟斷而違反謝爾曼反托拉斯法，被勒令拆分解散。但艾倫金特並未明列其中。公元2006年，集換式卡片商托普斯(Topps)，重新啟用艾倫金特的品牌名稱，發行以當代運動明星為主的各類卡片。