This beautiful Victorian lithograph from the Piper Heidsieck National Tobacco Works Company in Louisville, Kentucky features a pretty woman, surely designed to catch a male’s eye. Since many were the typical smokers in the late 1800’s when this was made, that makes sense. What I find interesting is the bottle of champagne which is featured in the advertisement, which sits on a plate with the words “Champagne Flavored”. Apparently the Piper Heidsieck National Cut Plug tobacco brand was touted as a champagne flavored tobacco! I also find the use of the two small winged cherubs in the upper left of the image in the “P” from the word Piper is quite interesting. The usage of cherubs on beer related items was fairly common surprisingly in the early 1900’s, but there are very few examples of tobacco advertisements which incorporated the cherub image in their ads.
