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"Fiesta" (agua de colonia) Eau de cologne bottle
Object/Artifact
Colorless glass bottle of oblong section with strongly chamfered (beveled) vertical corners — giving a flattened octagonal cross-section — rounded shoulders, and a short neck closed by a tall black molded-plastic (phenolic/"bakelite"-type) screw cap. The bottle is nearly full of pale-yellow cologne. A paper front label in a mid-century modernist style carries a grid of navy-blue blocks on a (now browned) light ground: "agua de colonia" reversed out of a blue block, "FIESTA" in serif capitals beneath, "HECHO EN CUBA" below that, and a small navy block at the foot bearing a cursive monogram.
2025.1.272
Belonged to Gertrudis Caraballo Gálvez. Unused.
A domestically produced Cuban eau de cologne made by the Cuban state perfumery-and-cosmetics enterprise that succeeded the island's pre-1959 private houses (Crusellas, Sabatés, Gravi, the perfumer Agustín Reyes). State perfumery was consolidated as the Empresa Consolidada de Jabonería y Perfumería, founded in 1961 under the Ministry of Industries (then headed by Ernesto "Che" Guevara), with the Suchel/Suchel-Fragancias identity emerging in the mid-1960s. Everyday domestic colognes such as "Fiesta" were standard revolutionary-era consumer toiletries.
The Cabrera Arús family collection
Gertrudis Caraballo Gálvez collecition
2025.1
MINIL
Havana
Cuba
Caribbean
Central America
Fiesta
Date: circa 1960s–1970s (tentative). Terminus post quem ~1961 for nationalized state perfumery, with the "Suchel" producer identity in use from roughly the mid-1960s; the modernist grid label fits that period.
Label
bottle
agua de colonia, Fiesta, hecho en cuba
Spanish
eau de cologne, Fiesta, made in cuba
Label: "agua de colonia" / "FIESTA" / "HECHO EN CUBA" followed by an indistinct numeral or mark; a cursive monogram (not securely legible) reversed out of the lower navy block.
11.5 cm
5 cm
Glass bottle; threaded screw cap.
Glass
Plastic
Paper
Colorless molded glass; black molded plastic (phenolic/"bakelite"-type) cap; lithographed paper label; cologne liquid (contents present).
Fair
Gertrudis Caraballo Gálvez
owner
Havana
Cuba
Caribbean
Central America
production, acquisition, use