El azulejo del Studebaker - Seville

This large tile tableau in Calle Tetuán nº 9 contains advertising for the car brand Studebaker . It consists of tiles measuring 20 by 20 centimeters and is made with the turpentine technique.

We see five young ladies on board a car , dressed in 1920s fashion, enjoying the comfort of this six-cylinder car. The car drives through a park and when it passes Rodin's statue of The Thinker , the women stop for a moment. One of them points to the statue and begins an explanation of its features, the other ladies look attentively at the statue. At that time, the car was a sign of social distinction, a distinction that went hand in hand with leisure and culture.

It was placed on the facade of the old Bar El Sport, at the request of Vicente Aceña, the representative of the American car company in Seville . El Sport was an establishment that, although it functioned as a bar, was more of an English club , with limited access, whose owner, José Guillén, founded the business as a social meeting place where some of Seville's social and economic figures from those time met.

The business closed its doors at the beginning of the 1970s . Today it houses a jewelry store .

It dates from 1924 and was made by Enrique Orce Mármol at the Taller de Viuda e Hijos de Ramos Rejano in Seville. It was dismantled in August 1978 and transferred to the workshop of Alfonso Orce González and Alfonso Orce Villar, at number 9 Covadonga Street, in the Casa de los Artesanos de Triana, where it was restored.

Author: Willem Vandenameele