H and H Coffee

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

Texas Glass by Michael David Smith, page 50

By Michael David Smith · 1989 · Self-published, author-direct (Austin, TX)

Bibliographic detail

  • Title: TEXAS GLASS: An Illustrated History of The Three Rivers Glass Company, 1922–1937
  • Author: Michael David Smith
  • Edition: First and only edition, 1989
  • Publisher: Self-published, author-direct sale from Austin, Texas
  • ISBN: TBD — to be confirmed in-hand
  • Pagination: TBD — to be confirmed in-hand
  • Format: Thin softcover; light periwinkle cover — same as the author-direct copy
  • Distinguishing detail (this lot): Multiple copies in this accession; one supplies the page-50 Charles Arnott photograph used as this artifact’s cover image — (l—r) clear H & H Coffee, amber H & H Coffee.

Physical description

Same physical format as the author-direct copy: thin light-periwinkle softcover. This is the Goodie Box lot — multiple copies acquired in-person at the antique shop in Three Rivers, TX. Condition to be confirmed in-hand per copy. None known to bear author inscriptions (Smith did not sign the in-shop copies).

Provenance

Acquired 14 June 2014 during an in-person day-trip to Three Rivers, Texas — the home of the glassworks that made the square H and H Crystalvac line. Walked into The Goodie Box antique shop on Highway 72; no H and H stock on the floor that day, but the shop had additional copies of Smith’s reference and additional regional Three Rivers embossed bottles, all purchased together. Accessioned as HH-BOOK-2014-0007.

The $297.00 Visa-swipe receipt is the unitemized record of the joint transaction (books + bottle lot HH-BOTTLE-2014-0007). The author-direct first copy (mailed from Austin before this trip) is accessioned separately as HH-BOOK-2014-0006 — see Texas Glass (author-direct copy).

Acquisition-day side note: Dealer-on-duty Denise Salvagno phoned her friend Debbie Keneson, a collector with a booth at the Comfort Antique Mall; Debbie held a large clear H and H three-pound Crystalvac jar for pickup the following day (HH-PACKAGING-2014-0004, picked up 2014-06-15). The Three Rivers visit produced both the additional book copies and the lead that brought the three-pound jar into the collection.

Why it matters

The page-50 Arnott photograph — (l—r) clear H & H Coffee, amber H & H Coffee one-pound square jars — is the single image that established the Three Rivers ↔ H and H connection before any field-find confirmation. Holding multiple copies makes the page-50 plate available for in-hand comparison and excerpting without risking the author-direct copy.

Beyond redundancy, the Goodie Box lot is provenance evidence in itself: it documents that as of 2014, the only place that still stocked Smith’s monograph was the antique shop down the road from the original Three Rivers plant site. The book had not been reprinted or commercially distributed; the Goodie Box copies are residual author-direct inventory carried to a local retail outlet. This corroborates the bibliographic note that Smith 1989 had only one printing.

Same research role as the author-direct copy: foundational reference for the H and H Crystalvac glass-supplier story (1932–1936/37 supply era), cited across the H and H research corpus.

Notable contents

  • Page 50 — Charles Arnott photograph of (l—r) clear H & H Coffee, amber H & H Coffee one-pound square jars. Foundational image for the Crystalvac attribution.
  • Full plant history (1922–1937).
  • Embossed-mark and mold-number catalog for in-field bottle attribution.

Related: Three Rivers Glass Company · H and H Crystalvac Jar · Texas Glass (author-direct copy) · Three Rivers visit narrative · Library · Library — Purchase List