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Soviet aluminum desk tray / memo holder with telephone-information pictograms
Object/Artifact
A small rectangular desk accessory of cast light metal (aluminum or aluminum-type alloy), functioning as a combined memo/note tray. The upper portion is a shallow square well with a finely textured (woven/cross-hatched) base inside a raised rim; below it runs a row of five small square tiles on a blue ground, each bearing a white pictogram: a writing/pointing hand, a telephone handset, a red cross (medical), a stemmed glass or pharmacy-type symbol, and an X/crossed symbol. The reverse has the same textured field and carries an impressed circular maker's mark: a ringed circle enclosing a stylized angular monogram (interlocked "M"/zigzag device) above curved Cyrillic lettering reading "ИОЗОК." The piece shows soiling, spotting, adhesive/residue staining on the lower reverse, a result of having being used as an ashtray.
2025.1.131
Belonged to Leopoldo Arús Caraballo
The Cabrera Arús family collection
Leopoldo Arús Caraballo collection
2025.1
U.S.S.R.
Eastern Europe
Europe
Maker Soviet manufacturer, identified by the impressed trademark — an angular monogram with the Cyrillic factory legend "ИОЗОК." The legend appears to be a plant acronym; the specific enterprise has not been matched to a reference and the full name is undetermined. Date Undetermined. Soviet origin places it within the era of USSR–Cuba trade (1960s–1991); the cast-aluminum desk-souvenir/utility style is consistent with mid-to-late 20th-century Soviet production. No date is present on the object. Place of Origin USSR (Soviet Union), per the Cyrillic maker's mark. Specific city/plant undetermined.
Reverse: impressed circular maker's mark — ringed circle enclosing a stylized angular monogram (interlocked "M"/zigzag), with curved Cyrillic lettering "ИОЗОК" below. ( Front: five pictogram tiles — writing hand; telephone handset; red cross; stemmed-glass/symbol; X-symbol.
aluminum
Materials Cast light metal (aluminum or aluminum-type alloy); applied enamel or paint on the pictogram tiles (blue ground, colored icons); residual adhesive/staining. Technique Cast and surface-textured metal tray with integrally formed well and tile recesses; pictogram tiles filled with colored enamel/paint and set into the recesses; impressed maker's mark on the reverse.
Fair
Leopoldo Arús Caraballo
owner
Havana
Cuba
Caribbean
Central America
use
U.S.S.R.
Eastern Europe
Europe
production
The row of pictograms (writing, telephone, medical cross, etc.) indicates the tray served as a desktop reference or memo holder, plausibly keyed to service or emergency telephone categories.
The Cyrillic maker's mark "ИОЗОК" with its monogram confirms Soviet manufacture; the specific factory and a precise date could not be established and would best be confirmed against a Soviet trademark/maker's-mark catalog or from provenance.