A Los Mandarines Cafés y Tés c.1908 by Leonetto Cappiello – Iconic Spanish Coffee & Tea Advertising Poster

A Los Mandarines Cafés y Tés – Historic 1908 Advertising Art by Leonetto Cappiello

Explore the visual history of early 20th-century European advertising with A Los Mandarines Cafés y Tés, a dramatic 1908 poster created by celebrated Italian-French commercial artist Leonetto Cappiello for a Spanish coffee and tea merchant.

The composition presents a highly animated server carrying a tray laden with packaged tea, a cup, and a gleaming coffee or tea pot. A vivid red-and-green striped costume, golden turban, ochre-colored shoes, and exaggerated pose emerge forcefully from the solid black background. Across the upper and lower portions, enormous golden lettering announces A Los Mandarines and Cafés y Tés, making the brand and its products immediately visible.

A packaged product labeled for Cafés y Tés A Los Mandarines appears in the lower-right corner beside the phrase “Envase Patentado,” meaning “patented packaging.” This inclusion highlights the period’s growing emphasis on distinctive retail packaging, recognizable branding, and commercial distribution.

Cappiello became famous for reducing advertisements to a memorable figure, a few intense colors, and commanding typography. That strategy is clearly visible here: the isolated character, sweeping movement, and bold chromatic contrast were designed to seize attention instantly on a busy city street. The poster is historically significant as an example of both Cappiello’s influential graphic language and the racialized exoticism that appeared frequently in Western advertising of this era.

Because the artwork contains an outdated and offensive racial caricature, it is best understood and displayed within its historical context. It may interest collectors, educators, museums, and students examining the development of advertising, visual stereotypes, European consumer culture, and changing social values.

Why Collectors Value This Print

• Created by influential poster artist Leonetto Cappiello
• Reproduces a documented style of early 20th-century advertising
• Advertises the Spanish A Los Mandarines coffee and tea business
• Dates to 1908, during a formative period in modern poster design
• Demonstrates Cappiello’s signature use of a solid black background
• Features bold golden typography with strong visual impact
• Uses an energetic diagonal pose to convey movement
• Includes historic coffee and tea packaging imagery
• References patented packaging with the phrase “Envase Patentado”
• Offers insight into the evolution of branding and packaged foods
• Documents racialized imagery once used in European commerce
• Provides material for studying stereotypes in advertising history
• Suitable for historically focused collections and educational displays
• Holds relevance for collectors of Spanish and European commercial art
• Preserves a visually powerful yet socially complex historic artifact

Available Print & Display Options

• Fine Art Prints
• Framed Fine Art Prints
• Gallery-Wrapped Canvas
• Black Floater Frame Canvas
• White Floater Frame Canvas
• Brown Floater Frame Canvas
• Natural Floater Frame Canvas
• Metal Prints

Choose a fine-art print for archival-style presentation, a ready-to-display framed edition, dimensional canvas, or a sleek metal print. Each format retains the composition’s deep black field, forceful red-and-green costume, golden lettering, and dramatic visual contrast.

Artwork Details

• Title: A Los Mandarines Cafés y Tés
• Artist: Leonetto Cappiello
• Date: 1908
• Country and market: Spanish-language commercial advertising
• Historic brand: A Los Mandarines
• Products advertised: Coffee and tea
• Visible packaging statement: “Envase Patentado”
• Primary subject: A server carrying packaged tea and beverage service
• Style: Early modern European advertising with proto–Art Deco qualities
• Composition: Isolated animated figure with oversized commercial typography
• Primary colors: Black, gold, red, green, ochre, and brown
• Mood: Energetic, theatrical, dramatic, and historically complex
• Recommended settings: Curated collection, study, library, classroom, museum-style display, or commercial-art archive
• Collector appeal: Cappiello, coffee and tea advertising, Spanish brands, packaging history, and social history

Disclaimer

This artwork is a Museum Grade Reproduction of a Historical advertising poster.

It is offered as a decorative and educational reproduction and is not an original 1908 lithograph. Minor variations in color, visible texture, proportions, or cropping may occur among the available sizes and formats.

This historical poster contains an outdated and offensive racial caricature. It is reproduced as an artifact of advertising and social history, not as an endorsement of the stereotype it depicts. Yesterday’s Posters rejects racism, racial stereotyping, and discrimination in all forms.

Yesterday’s Posters is an independent seller and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by A Los Mandarines, Leonetto Cappiello, P. Roberti, or any associated companies or rights holders.