La Africana

These risqué images were offered in packs of La Africana cigarillos by the Vaccaro Company of Peru as a way of luring potential customers.  Tobacco cards were first produced as premiums in the mid nineteenth century, and continued to grow in popularity until World War I.  These particular images, printed circa 1900, are scandalous compared to the more common cigarette cards of the day which included such mundane subjects as ships, birds, flags of the world, and military uniforms.