Cuba Material collection · Colección Cuba Material
Powered by CatalogIt · Gestionada con CatalogIt
Catalog
"Eau de Cologne" soap bar, wrapped
Object/Artifact
A rectangular bar of toilet soap in its original wrapper, unused. The front of the wrapper is glossy green with an ornate black-and-yellow scrollwork cartouche framing the words "Eau de Cologne" in white script. The reverse carries a small monochrome emblem (a stylized cat face/head in a square device) above bilingual country-of-origin text in English and French. The wrapper is creased and lightly scuffed but intact, with the soap still enclosed. It measures about 8 cm wide, 5 cm deep, and 2.5 cm high.
2025.1.58
The soap was found in the early-2010s in a box at the Arús Caraballo's house. It had been saved with other soaps in a barbacoa storage and probably forgotten, surviving the whole Special Period.
Commercialized in the parallel market
The Cabrera Arús family collection
2025.1
Riesa
G.D.R.
Central Europe
Europe
Eau de Cologne
GDR (1949–1990); probably 1980s.
Inscription
front of soap wrapper
"Eau de Cologne"
French
"cologne"
Printed
The use of French for the scent name and the bilingual English/French origin text indicates packaging intended for export.
2.5 cm
8 cm
5 cm
soap bar, paper wrapping
wrap
Paper
Soap
Fair
Gertrudis Caraballo Gálvez
owner
Leopoldo Arús Gálvez
owner
Riesa
producer
COMECON
Havana
Cuba
Caribbean
Central America
acquisition
Saxony
G.D.R.
Central Europe
Europe
production
This is an East German export toilet soap, scented and named (in French) "Eau de Cologne," produced at the Riesa soap works in Saxony. The bilingual English/French origin statement and the French product name mark it as packaging aimed at export markets rather than domestic GDR sale, which is consistent with how it came to be in Cuba: GDR consumer goods circulated within the socialist trading bloc and reached Cuban consumers, here, per the record, through the parallel (informal/black) market rather than ordinary state retail. The provenance context recorded with the object is historically telling: it was sold in the parallel market, and the bar was found in the early 2010s in a box at the donor's house, where it had been saved with other soaps in a closet and probably forgotten by the owners during the Special Period. The Special Period — Cuba's severe economic crisis following the collapse of the Soviet bloc in the early 1990s — is exactly the context in which a soap would have been used. This places the soap's likely use-life in the 1980s.