Book of Riddles, from the Honest Library series (N115) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Honest Long Cut Tobacco

Book of Riddles, from the Honest Library series (N115) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Honest Long Cut Tobacco

W. Duke, Sons & Co.

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Trade cards/ booklets from the "Honest Library'" series (N115), issued in an unnumbered set of 25 in 1896 by W. Duke Sons & Co. to promote Honest Long Cut Tobacco. Each booklet consists of 16 pages of text and illustrations on a theme. Two other cigarette companies released the series in the same year, Gail & Ax (Navy Library) and Whitlock (Cheroots Library).

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Book of Riddles, from the Honest Library series (N115) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Honest Long Cut TobaccoBook of Riddles, from the Honest Library series (N115) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Honest Long Cut TobaccoBook of Riddles, from the Honest Library series (N115) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Honest Long Cut TobaccoBook of Riddles, from the Honest Library series (N115) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Honest Long Cut TobaccoBook of Riddles, from the Honest Library series (N115) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Honest Long Cut Tobacco

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.