Sep 30, 2021 - Sale 2580

Sale 2580 - Lot 300

Price Realized: $ 910
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900
(CUBA.) Photographs from Daiquiri, Cuba including Jennings Cox. 25 stereographic photographs, each with two mounted silver prints about 4 1/4 x 3 1/4 inches, mounted on a plain 5 x 7-inch gray card, most with manuscript captions on mount recto and/or verso; minimal wear. Daiquirí, Cuba, 1906-07 and undated
Set Alert for Similar Items

Additional Details

The American mining engineer Jennings Stockton Cox Jr. (1866-1913) is generally credited as the inventor of the daiquiri, the popular rum-lime-sugar cocktail. He was for many years the general manager of the Spanish-American Mining Company with holdings in and near the Cuban village of Daiquirí. These stereoview photographs show the mines and miners, and leisurely scenes at the "Casa Grande." Mr. Cox is identified at least twice--although he unfortunately does not raise a glass in any of them. In one titled "Before the gates ajar" he strolls through a tall open gate with his hands in his pockets. In the other, he stands with a group of three other named men in front of the same gate, December 1906 (Cox stands at left, illustrated). Another may show him on horseback receiving a cup of coffee from a servant, though he is not named.

These views were clearly produced for private use rather than commercial distribution. Almost all of the photographs are captioned "Casa Grande, Daiquiri" on verso, even those taken at the mines. Other highlights include a group of musicians and dancers titled "Cuban danza, Altagracia coffee plantation, Feb. 1907"; a child laborer captioned "An earnest worker"; 4 miners pushing an ore cart, captioned "The struggle for life"; Among the named mines are Lola, Magdalena, and San Antonio, as well as the Sigua cattle ranch. One of the images is lightly hand-colored, captioned "Mr. Charles Rand at Casa Grande's gate, Dec. 1906." These photographs may be of substantial interest for Cuban and mining history, even beyond the special importance of Cox to the annals of mixology.