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Cuban Mortar Tiles Chapter 5: Common Patterns, Copying and Copyright Exact matches The same tiles crop up all over Cuba. Exactly similar patterns can be found in different, sometimes distant cities. Were whole fl oors or loads of heavy tiles transported from Havana? Or is it more likely that only the moulds were transported and that tiles were made locally? Jaume Rosell writes that the diffi culties in transporting the heavy and fragileedged tiles originally favoured wide decentralisation of the industry in Spain, and the same surely happened in Cuba. Factories and workshops certainly sprung up throughout the country. He also noted that “presses were easily transported” and that, for large orders, a company would travel in order to produce tiles near the construction sites. Juan de la Cuevas notes “whole fl oors were exported as far as Latin America between 1940 and 1955”. 1 It is quite possible that it was artisans, their hydraulic press and their moulds which travelled rather than the tiles themselves. A local facility with locally supplied materials and racks for storage and hydration and drying etc. would have been required. The artisan would effectively be setting up a local branch of the parent company. So how big did an order have to be to warrant this setting up of a local branch? Presumably it would be cheaper and less trouble to dispatch smaller shipments of tiles, prepared in the main factory, by train or boat. Alternatively perhaps just the very small and light trepa would be sent so that tiles could be produced by another more local company using their own presses? Would for instance, ‘La Manzanillera’ in Manzanillo ever borrow a trepa from Havana’s ‘La Cubana’ in order to produce tiles of exactly the same design (as in fi gs 47 and 48)? There would have been a number of copyright and quality issues attached to such an arrangement. 2 Felicia Chateloin suggests that while concrete mould-makers guarded their copyrights jealously with tight stipulations protecting their patents, the sharing of designs was far more liberal if there was a family connection between factories. 3 1. La Industria Cubana de Materiles de Construccion 2. Albert Marti email to AJ july 20 2009 3. F.C in conversation September 12 2009.2 Chapter 5: Common patterns, Copying and Copyright Smaller producers however tended to be less possessive about designs, concentrating on tile production rather than copyright issues. Smaller factories often shared ‘molderos’ (trepa-makers) 2. The same pattern could thus be sold to a number of local tile fabricators, and this would account for the similarity between tiles, particularly those with the simpler patterns. Inexact matches In fi gs. 51 and 52 the pattern of the main tile matches exactly, but the colours vary. In fi gs. 49 and 50 it appears as though the same mould was used but the colours were changed and parts of the pattern omitted. There are countless examples of tiles with very, very similar patterns, but which are not exact matches. On close comparison it can be seen the tiles used different trepas with subtle variations in the fi gure. It is possible that some tile manufacturers skirted copyright complexities by altering designs but in many cases, the copies are very close. Jaume Rosell advises that patterns were often copied by molderos from borrowed catalogues. The scale change between catalogue and trepa is likely to have produced inaccurate copying. Figs 53,54 and 55 show inexact copies of a popular tile pattern. This pattern was obviously imitated by more or less able artisans – the Las Tunas tile similar to the Trinidad tile but with a plumper fl eur-de-lis fi gure and omitting some parts of the pattern. The Santiago tile is cruder copy, with fewer petals and fat fl eur-de-lis.
Cuban Mortar Tiles Chapter 6: Accessories and Imitation of Other Materials Figs 56 and 57: Tile patterns seen in the capital and in provincial cities, at Maximo Gomez #3, Santa Clara (above) and in the Hotel Central, Plaza Marti, Santa Clara (right)
Page 1 and 2: Cuban Mortar Tiles International Co
Page 3 and 4: Acknowledgements Firstly to the Bri
Page 5 and 6: Contents Introduction Chapter 1: Wh
Page 7 and 8: Cuban Mortar Tiles Chapter 1: What
Page 9 and 10: Cuban Mortar Tiles Chapter 2: Histo
Page 11 and 12: Cuban Mortar Tiles Havana: Economic
Page 13 and 14: Cuban Mortar Tiles The ‘Escofet
Page 15 and 16: Cuban Mortar Tiles Chapter 1: What
Page 17 and 18: Cuban Mortar Tiles Chapter 4: Acros
Page 19 and 20: Cuban Mortar Tiles Chapter 4: Acros
Page 21 and 22: Cuban Mortar Tiles In the early day
Page 23: Cuban Mortar Tiles Chapter 5: Commo
Page 27 and 28: Cuban Mortar Tiles Chapter 5: Commo
Page 29 and 30: Cuban Mortar Tiles Chapter 6: Acces
Page 31 and 32: Cuban Mortar Tiles Chapter 7: Conve
Page 33 and 34: Cuban Mortar Tiles Bedrooms in larg
Page 35 and 36: Cuban Mortar Tiles Chapter 8: Produ
Page 37 and 38: Cuban Mortar Tiles Chapter 8 Produc
Page 39 and 40: Cuban Mortar Tiles Chapter 9: Probl
Page 41 and 42: Cuban Mortar Tiles Chapter 9: Probl
Page 43 and 44: Cuban Mortar Tiles Bibliography Bib
Page 45 and 46: Cuban Mortar Tiles Appendix A: List
Page 47 and 48: Cuban Mortar Tiles Appendix B: Fabr
Page 49 and 50: Cuban Mortar Tiles Appendix B: (con

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