I was planning to share the 'What's Inside Issue 05 of BLAG?' post today, but have postponed this until next week. If you can't wait that long (😉), then get a copy of the magazine itself shipped to you right away by signing up as a Blagger today.

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"There are some epic photos of a sign painter in 50s Cuba on eBay" was the message I received from BLAG member Brennen Bechtol back in April. This was followed by some pictures and a link to the eBay listings.

Smartly dressed man posint in front of a painted wall advertisement for 'Trimalta Polar'.
Our mystery sign painter posing with a piece of branded wall work for a brewer. Photo reproduced with kind permission of Letterform Archive.

After I shared the discovery on mastodon, the wonderful folks at Letterform Archive picked up the baton and purchased the available set of eight prints. However, before they did that, Brennen had snapped up his favourite, which he has since donated it to the archive, keeping the full set of nine together.

Photo cropped to give a head and chest image of a man in an open-necked shirt and hat.
The sign painter, Cuba, 1950s.

Letterform Archive have since taken high resolution photography of the images, and kindly given permission to publish them here at bl.ag online. In some cases I have cropped them the lettering in more detail, alongside the original print.

The Mystery Sign Painter

The photos were likely produced for the sign painter to use as a portfolio, and his pride is evident as he poses in front of his work. The prints are signed, presumably by him, with what looks like 'P.T. Dust', but otherwise there are few clues as to his identity.

2 x 2 array of signatures by the same person.
Four examples of the signature that appears on the prints.

Among the handwritten annotations on some of the prints is one that says "maquina de la Habana" (Havana machine), which initially made me think that the sign painter was based in the capital city. However, looking at some of the lettering on the vehicles, the central Cuban city of Camagüey is mentioned a couple of times. This is over 500 km (300 miles) from the capital and so I suspect that this is where our mystery sign painter was operating.

Detail of a hand-lettered truck door with a picture of a tyre and lettering for "El Transporte".
Detail of the truck door painted for Rogelio Hernández, and including an address in Camagüey. Photo reproduced with kind permission of Letterform Archive.

The Prints

The prints measure 25 x 20 cm (10 x 8 in), with all bar one in a landscape orientation. The reverse of one is stamped with "Foto de Archivo" (archival photo) and "Republica de Cuba", beside which there's a circled number 46 in pencil, but there are no clues as to who took and developed the photos.

Smartly dressed man with arms folded in front of a lorry that has a picture of a packet of cigars and lettering for the Guarina brand.
Livery work for the Guarina brand of cigars, and annotated with the date it was painted: 1958. Photo reproduced with kind permission of Letterform Archive.

Two handwritten annotations date one of the photos to 1957, and the work that appears in another to 1958. It seems likely that the entire set was photographed and developed relatively close to these dates.

The seller on eBay stated that the original owner of the prints was Julian Valdes, and that the collection was held by The Cuban Museum in Miami, Florida. There isn't any information about how they got from Cuba to the USA, but the sign painter and his work have now found a good home at Letterform Archive.

Sepia photo of a topless man resting his arm on the back of a truck that has hand-painted lettering on the door.
No shirt and shades on what was presumably a hot day on the brush. Photo reproduced with kind permission of Letterform Archive.
Smartly dressed man resting a foot on a lorry which is hand-lettered, and what is visible reads "...peradora Comercial S.A."
More truck lettering, for a petrochemical firm. The monoline script appears more than once in the work captured in the photos. Photo reproduced with kind permission of Letterform Archive.
A closer look at the two lettering styles on the truck. Photo reproduced with kind permission of Letterform Archive.
Work for a school bus. Photo reproduced with kind permission of Letterform Archive.
Truck lettering for the Otero dairy firm, and a panel for the Elvia Bar. Photo reproduced with kind permission of Letterform Archive.
A closer look at those two pieces. Florida is a smaller city in the Cuban province of Camagüey. Photo reproduced with kind permission of Letterform Archive.
I'd love to know what he was thinking when this one was taken. Photo reproduced with kind permission of Letterform Archive.
The annotation says that the photo was taken on a Sunday in March in 1957. The piece on the door is advertising a hardware shop. Photo reproduced with kind permission of Letterform Archive.
This is the ninth photo that Brennen Bechtol bought and then donated to Letterform Archive in order to keep the entire set together. The truck lettering is for a dairy firm, but it's not clear if the mural behind has anything to do with our sign painter, or if it was simply chosen as a backdrop for this picture. Photo reproduced with kind permission of Letterform Archive.
Thank you to Brennen Bechtol for first spotting these pictures on eBay, and to Ellis Martin and Stephen Coles at Letterform Archive for acquiring them and making these scans available for publication.

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