Hoffmann-Hayman Coffee Co.est. 1899 · San Antonio, Texas

H and H Advertising Sign

Five substrate types put the H and H brands into grocer windows, cafe walls, and outdoor billboard space across the brand’s active period — cardboard litho counter signs, lithographed tin signs, flat metal panels, hand-painted plywood boards, and heavy-paper price signs. The cardboard litho and tin formats distributed through the retail grocery channel; the painted plywood and wall signs served on-premise institutional accounts.

Quick ID:

  • Cardboard litho counter sign — horizontal format (~19×9 in), “Fragrant…” rose graphic left + painted H&H Blend tin center + H AND H COFFEE banner right; Continental Litho. Corp. Cleveland credit in lower-right margin; “NO. 2” stock mark at lower left on documented examples
  • Texas Girl tin sign — rectangular litho tin, cream block letters on a red field (in-collection example) or magenta field (Grimsley reference, Kansas); portrait vignette absent — wordmark-only design
  • Texas Girl metal panel sign — flat black-painted metal with rounded corners; “AN H and H PRODUCT” crest above the Texas Girl wordmark; “WE ROAST IT / OTHERS PRAISE IT” slogan
  • Master Chef plywood sign — large ~4×8 ft hand-painted board, red field, white display lettering; “WE SERVE” header; chef portrait carries a heavy handlebar mustache and direct expression — distinct from the round-faced jolly chef on the tin cans
  • Price/POS sign — ~7×12 in heavy paper (~20 lb stock), printed in red ink; retail shelf or counter use

Sign types

Cardboard litho counter sign (H and H Blend Coffee). Horizontal format designed for grocer counters and windows. The layout reads left to right: a painted one-pound H and H Blend Coffee tin in the red-white-blue label (“Steel Cut 100% Pure”), a trailing illustrated rose picking up the “Fragrant…” script, and the H AND H COFFEE banner with “Hoffmann-Hayman Est. 1899 Co.” and the “We roast it — others praise it” tagline. Stock numbers (“NO. 2” visible on HH-COLL-2019-0003) suggest a numbered run of related designs. Printer: Continental Litho. Corp., Cleveland (credit on HH-COLL-2019-0003).

Texas Girl tin sign. Rectangular lithographed metal sign for retail display. The in-collection example (HH-COLL-0000-0045) uses a red field with cream block letters; a second example documented by Darin Grimsley and found in Kansas (HH-REF-0000-0018) shows a magenta field, indicating at least two color variants. The tin sign design drops the portrait vignette used on the Texas Girl tins in favor of a single bold wordmark. Tin sign fabricator undocumented.

Texas Girl metal panel sign. Flat black-painted metal with rounded corners (HH-COLL-2026-0001). Carries the “AN H and H PRODUCT” crest above the Texas Girl wordmark and the “WE ROAST IT / OTHERS PRAISE IT” slogan. Distinct from the tin litho format — applied paint rather than lithography, likely intended for longer-term display in a trade setting.

Master Chef painted plywood sign. Large (~4×8 ft) hand-painted board on thin plywood with nail-head mounting evidence along top and bottom edges (HH-COLL-2014-0003). Red field, white mixed-case brush lettering for “Master Chef,” “WE SERVE” across the top. A small diagonal black banner with yellow “H and H” type tucks into the M; “COFFEE” in black block capitals sits in a yellow sunburst, lower right; a mustached chef fills the lower left. The chef portrait — handlebar mustache, direct expression — is a distinct design from the open-faced grinning chef on the tin cans. On-premise sign, not a later reprint. Attributed to Stevens Outdoor Advertising.

Price/POS sign (Master Chef). Heavy paper (~20 lb stock), ~7×12 in, printed in red ink (HH-COLL-2015-0016). Acquired unused from New Braunfels, TX. Format suggests retail shelf or counter display rather than window or wall mounting.

Outdoor billboard. A 1929 employee photo (HH-COLL-2018-0003) documents a large “Fragrant…” billboard — possibly a supersized execution of the same Continental Litho cardboard design — with Hoffmann-Hayman staff posed in front (the photo is the left half of a two-billboard Summerville panorama). No physical billboard survives in the collection; the employee photo is the primary documentation. (The companion HH-COLL-2018-0004 in the same lot is the 1933 “In Step with N.R.A.” factory-steps photo, not a second view of the billboard.)

On-premise wall signs (institutional). Master Chef Coffee signage appears on the Mi Tierra Cafe exterior at 218 Produce Row in the UTSA Ray Howell photograph collection (HH-REF-9020-0001) and in a 2024 Witte Museum exhibit of Al Rendón’s work (HH-REF-2024-0001). “Serving H&H Coffee” storefront signage appears at the Oriental Cafe (HH-REF-0000-0025). No physical examples from this format are in the collection.

Dating

Signs are the hardest H and H item type to date precisely — no newspaper launch coverage documents the cardboard litho run, and the plywood painted sign carries no date mark. Anchor points:

Manufacturer

Cardboard litho signs: Continental Litho. Corp., Cleveland — directly documented via printer credit on HH-COLL-2019-0003 (“Continental Litho. Corp. Cleveland” in the lower-right margin). No company file exists in the KB for Continental Litho.

Painted plywood/outdoor signs: Stevens Outdoor Advertising, San Antonio (Silas P. Stevens) — documented as the fabricator of H and H signs and billboards including the Master Chef plywood sign (see companies/stevens-outdoor-advertising.md).

Tin sign fabricator: Undocumented. No bottom-panel markings or printer credits have been confirmed on any Texas Girl tin sign example.

Metal panel signs: Fabricator undocumented. The flat-painted construction differs from the litho process and may have been produced locally.

Artifacts

In the collection

Reference

Wanted

None documented.

Open questions

See also