It is an interesting dichotomy that these beautiful, miniature works of art fueled the consumption of tobacco and cigarettes more than 100 years ago. Pressed into service again today, their fascinating history is brought to life as one-of-a-kind fine art quilts.
A Unique Legacy
The Art of Marketing Tobacco
Fueling a Desire
Tobacco silks were among the marketing tactics employed by tobacco companies as tobacco grew from a commodity product into a landscape of competing brands, now required to distinguish themselves to gain customer preference and loyalty.
These colorful pieces of fabric were created in series, illustrated with myriad themes originally targeted to men, including sports figures, military heroes, bathing beauties, and more.
Much like trading cards, they were tucked into cigarette and tobacco packages and promoted as collectibles. They were printed using state-of-the-art chromolithography, which reproduced illustrations and photographs in fine detail and vivid color. Owing to this expensive technology, only high-end tobacco companies could afford to offer them, further setting themselves apart from lesser-priced brands.
Marketing to a New Customer
Though most smokers at the time were men, tobacco companies discovered an eager new audience in women to whom they shrewdly marketed these giveaways as fabric treasures. Exotic flowers, china patterns, butterflies, and birds appealed to women, fueling their desire to collect complete each set offered by a particular brand of tobacco. The silks often came backed with instructions for sewing them into quilts or pillow tops and other practical items. Resourceful women used their ingenuity and their skill with needle and thread to stitch the silks together to produce all manner of useful and decorative articles for their homes.
The success of these promotions was swift but short-lived, as tobacco companies consolidated and profits harder to earn. Eventually the expense became too great even for premium brands, and tobacco companies all but ended the practice by the mid-1920s. But, beyond their once-successful role in the tobacco industry, tobacco silks remained sought after collectors’ items and are still in demand more than a century after their manufacture ceased.