Belonged to Leopoldo Arús Gálvez

2025.1

circa 1971 - circa 1980

AI notes: Maker: Not identified by manufacturer. The establishment named is "Restaurace ASIE" (Restaurant "Asia"); the printer/brewery and specific location are not shown. Date: Cannot be determined from the object; likely falls outside the 1959–1990 range. No date or datable mark is present, and the typography and ornament read as relatively contemporary (plausibly post-1990/post-1993), suggesting it may postdate the collection's range — but this is a stylistic inference, not a confirmed date. Flagged for verification. Place of Origin: Czech lands (Czechoslovakia / Czech Republic). The Czech word "Restaurace" (Slovak would be "Reštaurácia") identifies the language and origin as Czech; the exact town is not indicated.

Inscription

front of coaster

Restaurace Asie

Czech

Asian Restaurant

9 cm

Paper

Materials: Absorbent wood-pulp board (coaster/beer-mat stock); printed ink (single red color). Technique: Offset/letterpress one-color printing on a die-cut, scallop-edged pulpboard blank.

Fair

Leopoldo Arús Caraballo, the owner's son, may have brought it to Cuba after visiting Czechoslovakia and the still-standing Restaurace Asie in Mladá Boleslav, the second most populated city in the current Czech Republic. Restaurace Asie opened in 1971, the oldest Asian cuisine restaurant in the Czech Republic, as the restaurant website claims.

With no printed date and a modern-looking design, this most likely postdates 1990 and may fall outside the collection's 1959–1990 manufacture range. If it is a later piece, it would not belong to the socialist-era Czechoslovak import thread (Crystalex, Supraphon, Emgeton) but rather be a later acquisition or travel souvenir — worth distinguishing in the record.

"Restaurace Asie" is a generic name shared by many Asian restaurants in the Czech Republic, so the specific establishment can't be pinned