Archival coffee plates from three centuries of seeing the bean.

Archival coffee plates from three centuries of seeing the bean.

Cafe back wall

Shop by Setting

Cafe back wall

The counter-back wall in a specialty cafe reads first to every customer who walks in. A Belle Époque coffee poster or a Brussels chromolithograph anchors that wall in coffee history without putting any work on the staff to explain it.

What works on this wall

Anchor with one large statement piece behind the espresso machine, eye-level for a seated customer.
Pair with two or three smaller plates at register-line height for the standing customer to read in the queue.
Match frame stock across pieces — oak / walnut / ash. Same warm tone, same width.

12 pieces for this setting

Rajah by Henri Privat-Livemont, 1898–1899 — archival coffee print from Google Cultural Institute (max-zoom scan)

Belle Époque Coffee Print — Rajah by Henri Privat-Livemont, 1898–1899

$19

Théâtre du Chat Noir — Cover with Cyclamens by George Auriol, 1894 — archival coffee print from Bibliothèque nationale de France (Gallica)

Belle Époque Coffee Print — Théâtre du Chat Noir — Cover with Cyclamens by George Auriol,

$19

Thé Rajah by Henri Meunier, 1897 — archival coffee print from Google Art Project (multiple Belgian holdings)

Belle Époque Coffee Print — Thé Rajah by Henri Meunier, 1897

$19

Café barcadère restaurante, St

Café barcadère restaurante, St

$19

[Coffee House, Bremen, Germany]

[Coffee House, Bremen, Germany]

$19

Island Café́ and Grand Hotel, Stockholm, Sweden

Island Café́ and Grand Hotel, Stockholm, Sweden

$19

[Trademark registration by Alkire Grocer Company for Every Day brand Coffee]

$19

Siege of Vicksburg

Siege of Vicksburg

$19

Battle between the Monitor and Merrimac

Battle between the Monitor and Merrimac

$19

[Moorish coffee house, Algiers, Algeria]

[Moorish coffee house, Algiers, Algeria]

$19

[Trademark registration by J. H

[Trademark registration by J. H

$19

[Trademark registration by Ricker, Crombie & McLaren for Red Cross brand Coffee]

$19

Doing more than one space?

The Cafe Bar Wall Kit bundles 12 hand-picked pieces and a layout guide for $129.

Want us to pick for you?

Custom Curation — tell us about the space and we hand-pick 6, 10, or 20 pieces. From $49.

Coffee Posters

An independent visual archive of coffee, 1700–1925. We work through Wellcome, Gallica, the Rijksmuseum, Museu Paulista, the Library of Congress, and the institutional collections where the printed record of coffee survives. We restore what we find. Nothing is designed, nothing is faked.

hello@coffeeposters.com

A project of TimberFlare — handmade bottomless portafilters.

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