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"Alameda" talcum-powder box
Object/Artifact
A round cardboard talcum-powder box. The lithographed design sets "Talco" in elegant black script over "ALAMEDA" in large pale deco capitals on a turquoise band; below, on a cream ground, is a Belle Époque-style illustration of a lady in a plumed hat holding a fringed pink parasol. Around the lower arc runs the maker's legend "EMPRESA CONSOLIDADA DE JABONERÍA Y PERFUMERÍA," with a small "2" at right and the interlocked state-enterprise monogram centered above the text. The lid is toned, foxed, soiled, and abraded.
2025.6.34
Belonged to Mirta Martínez Forteza
"Talco" is talcum powder; "Alameda" is the brand/fragrance name. The maker is the Empresa Consolidada de Jabonería y Perfumería — the early Cuban state enterprise founded in 1961 (Ministry of Industries, under Che Guevara) to consolidate the nationalized soap-and-perfume firms, later renamed Suchel (Suchel-Fragancias from 1966). A box bearing the "Empresa Consolidada" legend therefore dates to the 1960s, the same maker and era as the Tess compact-powder refill in this series. Notably, the genteel Belle Époque parasol-lady graphic continues a pre-revolutionary visual idiom under early-socialist state production. The "2" after the maker line likely designates a production unit/plant number. The monogram matches that on the Minuet, Fantasía, and Realce packaging — the state enterprise's recurring device.
The Martínez Suquet family collection
Mirta Martínez Forteza collection
2025.6
Mirta Suquet
Gift
Empresa Consolidada de Jabonería y Perfumería
1960s
Cuba
Caribbean
Central America
Alameda
Manufacturer: Empresa Consolidada de Jabonería y Perfumería, Ministry of Industries, Cuba (the pre-"Suchel" state enterprise) — per the lid legend. Brand: Alameda. Date: circa 1960s; tentative within the decade. The "Empresa Consolidada" name (not yet "Suchel") places it before the Suchel-branded items — within the collection period. Place: Cuba.
Inscription
container lid
"Talco Alameda EMPRESA CONSOLIDADA DE JABONERIA Y PERFUMERIA 2".
Spanish
"Alameda Talc CONSOLIDATED SOAP AND PERFUMERY COMPANY"
Inscribed
diameter: 12; high: 5.4
5.4 cm
12 cm
Lid (lithographed cardboard). Box base. Talc contents.
Cardboard
Cardboard (lid); lithographed/printed paper surface. Talc contents.
Fair
Mirta Martínez Forteza
owner
Pinar del Río
Pinar del Río
Cuba
Caribbean
Central America
acquisition, use
The Belle Époque graphic on a socialist-era product is a notable design-continuity point (pre-revolutionary idiom retained by the state enterprise).