Frontier of Lithograph Promotion from The Rucker Archive

This is one of my favorite kind of lithographic promotion products - a tobacco crate label.  Hordes of examples by the Hoen Litho Company of Richmond, turned up years ago and still flood the market.  Tobacco crate or cadet labels were used on large boxes of scrap tobacco, often used as insect repellent.The scene depicted on this 16"x10" label was unlikely, but not impossible. What the scene was intended to do was to attract the eye of the buyer from other brands visible and available.  Bears attacking a horse is an unusual event, and the ensuing fight is no doubt fanciful, but it is drama that is needed here and this image delivers.  This image was produced by Major & Knapp lithographers in 1868.  So - here's to the lowly lithographers, who did not have to produce such fine work, who did not have to be so dedicated to their trade.  Here's to their excellence, their love of art, and their expansive creativity.  As history has put commercial art and artists deep into the closet, so we must force those with historical and aesthetic concerns to recognize the work of early litho artists - merely by putting it in front of them.