Post #638110 by atomictonytiki on Sun, May 27, 2012 12:06 AM

Inspired by Tiki Wagons Beachcomber mug find, I decided to spend some time trying to find the makers of these crypto mugs.

A few months ago I chanced, on a search on a search for "Beachcomber Mayfair London", on the following web page from the Telegraph from 19 Oct 1996..

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/4705107/Arabian-sights-on-the-tiles.html

..the page is about the welsh ceramicist Jean Powell and has the following intriguing passage..

Jean and her late husband, Rhys, were among the first of North Wales's legion of struggling potters. Back in the Fifties they made "Polynesian coconut" pot ashtrays for the Beachcomber restaurant in the Mayfair Hotel, London. They were so popular that diners regularly walked off with an ashtray in their pocket.

Orders for more and more replacement coconut ashtrays were sent to the Powell workshops, then in Llangollen. Rhys and Jean even had to stop making their bestselling piggy banks and salt and pepper pots just to keep up with the demand for baked-clay coconuts. But the ashtrays paid the rent.

So Jean and her husband made coconut ashtrays for the Beachcomber, well that adds another item to the list of crypto-items from that establishment.

Next I searched to see if Craig Bragdy Designs was still in business..

http://www.craigbragdydesign.co.uk/

..they are and on the site they have Jean Powell's book "Earth Fire and Water", which contains on page 19 this enlightening passage..

..now in my search I've turned up another crypto-item "Butlins Beachcomber Tiki Lamps". But on sentence got me thinking..

On each we had to scratch "Mayfair Hotel London".

Now we have no examples of the coconut ashtrays but we do have these mugs..

The Flaming Grog Mug, note the Mayfair branding on the side..

Beachcomber Logo Mug

and Mayfair branding does appear to be scratched on.
Were these mugs made by Jean and her Husband?
Surely the Beachcomber got their mugs made at the same place as their ashtrays?

So I took the chance and wrote to Craig Bragdy Designs and got this lovely reply back..

Dear Johann

Yes you have tracked us down! In the late 50’s early 60’s we did produce hundreds of these half coconut shell ashtrays and the primitive mugs, I remember a holiday maker watching me working and doing the scratching’s and remarking “oh how nice to be so artistic!”

Another Polynesian innovation we made was for Butlins holiday camp in South Wales, they wanted big lamp bases for their bar. We were living at Wern Mill, Nanerch near Denbigh at this time (1960ish) and we didn’t have a very big kiln. There was a pipe and brick making factory in Pont Y Bodkin near Mold making salt glazed drain pipes and bricks, so we picked up unglazed unfired drain pipes of various sizes, some quite big 1-2 meters in height, we carved them into Polynesian Easter Island faces and Totem poles and then took them back to the pipe factory to be salt glazed and fired. The factory men were very helpful but thought we were quite mad. The lamp bases had exotic drum like raffia shades fixed on them afterwards. I am sure you won’t find any of those in your hunt!

After my husband “Taffy” died in 1994, I have carried on with two of our sons, Nick and Shon. We design and make Ceramic Murals and Swimming Pools in our Denbigh factory. Our customers come from, Saudi Arabia, Emirates, far East, Russia, USA and the UK.

It is very interesting to have your enquiry, best wishes to you.

Jean Powell

So finally we have an answer to the Beachcomber Mayfair Mug Maker Mystery, the Flaming grog and double toggle tiki logo mug were designed by Jean and Taffy Powell and made at the Powell Pottery in Wales.

Now does anybody have an example of Jean's lamp bases as I like her challenge..

I am sure you won’t find any of those in your hunt!

[ Edited by: atomictonytiki 2012-05-27 00:07 ]