A Mystery Sign Painter from 1950s Cuba
Photos of a Cuban sign painter and his work appear on eBay and make their way to Letterform Archive.
"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.
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.
Letterform Archive have 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 to show 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.
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.