It came with a fine piece of tissue paper wrapped gently round it and twisted at the top. The delicate paper was printed with the story from the vineyard, and a beautiful black-and-white illustration of one of the workers in the wine industry.
So this is “El Maquinista”, the engineer on the steam train that transported the Rioja wine from Spain to France.
It was hot working on the engine of a steam train. Rumour has it that they used to siphon off some of the wine from the barrels …….
Anyway, I couldn’t bring myself to throw this artwork in the bin immediately. So, I reached for the camera.
