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"Mary" eye-shadow compact
Object/Artifact
Oval hinged compact in mottled dark-red/brown ("tortoiseshell"-effect) molded plastic. The lid bears a gilt-printed rococo scroll-and-floral cartouche centered on a small flower; a thumb-tab projects at the top edge. The base exterior is molded with concentric ribbing around a central roundel reading "Mary / Made in Poland." Opened, the lid holds an oval mirror (heavily desilvered/foxed); the base interior is fitted with shallow wells — an upper rectangular shadow pan (pale/spent), a left pan retaining pale blue shadow, a right empty well, and a long narrow channel (for a missing applicator). Surfaces are worn, soiled, and crazed.
2025.6.35
Belonged to Mirta Martínez Forteza
A duo/multi-pan eye-shadow compact with integral mirror — an imported consumer cosmetic. The "Made in Poland" mark places manufacture in the Polish People's Republic (socialist Poland), consistent with goods that reached Cuba through COMECON/Eastern-Bloc trade during the socialist period. Its form is essentially identical to the unmarked "Henrietta" compact recorded earlier in this series, suggesting both came from the same Polish source (likely the same factory supplying different brand/label names).
The Martínez Suquet family collection
Mirta Martínez Forteza collection
2025.6
Mirta Suquet
Gift
Poland
Eastern Europe
Europe
Mary
Date: circa 1960s–1980s; tentative (socialist-era Polish import; styling broadly mid-century).
Inscription
bottom of palette
"Mary" "Made in Poland"
English
Etched
Oval - Length: 7.9 Width: 6 Height: 1.3
1.3 cm
6 cm
7.9 cm
Lid (plastic) with mirror and gilt cartouche + hinge and thumb-tab + base (plastic) with molded "Mary / Made in Poland" roundel; shadow pans (upper; left blue; right empty).
Plastic
Molded plastic, simulated tortoiseshell (cellulose acetate or phenolic; tentative); glass mirror; metallic gilt ink (lid); eye-shadow powders (talc/binder/pigment).
Fair
Mirta Martínez Forteza
owner
Pinar del Río
Pinar del Río
Cuba
Caribbean
Central America
acquisition, use
The shared form strongly suggests Henrietta was also a Polish/Eastern-Bloc import from the same source under a different brand name.