Draw Poker--Laying for 'em Sharp: "See you, and go three better"

The late nineteenth-century Darktown prints by Currier & Ives depict racist stereotypes that are offensive and disturbing. The Metropolitan Museum of Art preserves such works to shed light on their historical context and to enable the study and evaluation of racism.　

This print depicts caricatured Black (African American) men in an interior. At right, three blue-uniformed policemen look around the door to spy on a four-man poker game in progress; the policeman on the bottom extends his left arm holding a baton. In the room, seated at a low table in front of a window, three men respond to a fourth man (seated to the right of the table with his back to the door, he wears a red-checked white shirt) who his showing his cards. He is the source of the spoken caption imprinted below. At left (with his back to the fireplace), a man (wearing a red bow tie, a brown tails jacket, and yellow pants with a red stripe down the side), chomps his cigarette as he looks surprised at the player declaring his win. Between them, a bald white haired man in a red shirt has his back the the viewer; opposite him, is the open-mouthed, wide-eyed head another poker player. Two candles are on the mantlepiece at left. Placed on the floor, beside the men are a glass, a bowl, and a cup. In the background, the plaster wall is cracked with two areas of exposed brick.The title and caption are imprinted in the bottom margin.

Nathaniel Currier (1813–1888), whose successful New York-based lithography firm began in 1835, produced thousands of prints in various sizes that together create a vivid panorama of mid-to-late nineteenth century American life and its history. People eagerly acquired such lithographs featuring picturesque scenery, rural and city views, ships, railroads, portraits, hunting and fishing scenes, domestic life and numerous other subjects, as an inexpensive way to decorate their homes or business establishments. As the firm expanded, Nathaniel included his younger brother Charles in the business. In 1857, James Merritt Ives (1824–1895), the firm's accountant since 1852 and Charles's brother-in-law, was made a business partner. Subsequently renamed Currier & Ives, the firm continued via their successors until 1907.