H and H Coffee

Dedicated to the history of the Hoffmann-Hayman Coffee Co. founded 1899 in San Antonio, Texas.

Art of the Pick photo book featuring Hoffmann-Hayman Broncho Coffee tin

By Mike Wolfe · photographs by Ian Lomas · produced by Mojomediapros Inc · 2013

Bibliographic detail

  • Title: Art of the Pick
  • Author / creators: Mike Wolfe (front of credit); photographs by Ian Lomas; produced by Mojomediapros Inc
  • Year: 2013
  • Publisher: Mojomediapros Inc (Antique Archaeology / American Pickers ecosystem)
  • ISBN: TBD — to be confirmed in-hand
  • Pagination: TBD — to be confirmed in-hand
  • Format: Large-format photo book; binding and dimensions to be confirmed in-hand

Physical description

Large-format photographic monograph in the American Pickers commercial ecosystem. Ian Lomas’s still-life photography drives the visual program: rust, paint, typography, and salvage-grade objects framed for design appeal rather than catalog completeness. Condition recorded as good in the accession register (loan-priority 50, loan-ready). The held copy may carry signed or numbered features common to Antique Archaeology merchandise (to be confirmed in-hand).

Provenance

Acquired 28 June 2014 via vendor purchase (Antique Archaeology online store / American Pickers merchandise channel); accessioned as HH-BOOK-2014-0005. The purchase was prompted by the appearance of a three-pound Hoffmann–Hayman Broncho Coffee tin in the book — the tin was gifted to Mike Wolfe by H and H descendants when the American Pickers crew filmed an episode in Texas. The book documented that gift; we bought the book to capture that documented frame.

See the Broncho Coffee × American Pickers post for the original purchase note and the chain of events linking the Broncho tin to the show.

Why it matters

Art of the Pick is the only mass-circulation pop-culture document that pictures a Hoffmann-Hayman product. The Broncho Coffee 3-lb tin frame is a small but notable piece of brand exposure that puts H and H ephemera in a published, distributed photographic record outside the H and H-specific collector world.

For the research corpus, the book matters as:

  1. Independent third-party documentation of the Broncho Coffee tin form, paint, and label state c.2013 (when photographed). Cited as a comparandum for surviving Broncho tin specimens in the collection.
  2. Provenance evidence for the Mike-Wolfe-gifted tin specifically — that physical object has a documented trail from H and H descendants → Mike Wolfe → photographed for Art of the Pick. Its current location is outside the H and H collection but its 2013 state is photographically captured.
  3. A trace of the H and H ↔ American Pickers crossover — establishing that H and H artifacts have moved through the pop-culture pickers world is part of the brand’s twenty-first-century afterlife.

Beyond H and H specifically, the book is a study in how non-academic photographic books treat trade ephemera — useful comparandum for editorial decisions about how the H and H gallery presents its tin and packaging photography.

Notable contents

  • Hoffmann-Hayman Broncho Coffee 3-lb tin — the H and H-relevant frame. Specific page reference to be confirmed in-hand.
  • Broader American Pickers salvage iconography: signs, tins, motorcycle parts, salvage-grade Americana. Useful context for tin-paint and label-wear comparison.
  • Ian Lomas’s photography style is light-shadow-and-rust still-life — visually compatible with the H and H tin gallery presentation conventions.

Open questions

  • Specific page reference for the Broncho tin spread — to be confirmed on a page-by-page sweep.
  • Did the show episode itself ever air? And if so, is it referenced in any of the trade press coverage of the show’s Texas swing?
  • Where is the Mike-Wolfe-gifted Broncho tin now? Antique Archaeology retail? Sold via the show’s channel? Private collection?

Related: Broncho Coffee · Broncho Coffee × American Pickers (post) · Library · Library — Purchase List