Post #730164 by Club Nouméa on Thu, Oct 23, 2014 1:49 AM

Hmm, that's some major hair-splitting going on over on the other side of the Pacific regarding that 1949 Crown Lynn tiki mug from New Zealand. :)

New Zealanders are not particular about what they put in their mugs and that item could easily have been used for any number of different varieties of alcohol. In a country where people used to (and still do) drink alcohol out of jam jars, anything goes. lol

I recall a similar initial reaction of disbelief when I posted those pics of the Wanganui Savage Club on Tiki Central a few years ago; a Polynesian-themed social club founded by European New Zealanders in the early 1890s, where they dressed up like Maoris, sang Maori songs, followed Maori meeting protocol, and addressed each other using Maori ranks. Tiki carvings featured prominently therein decades before they were adopted by Polynesian style bars and restaurants in California.

It looks like once again we have a Kiwi precursor that is upsetting some established theories, although I doubt whether that NZ mug had any influence on US tiki mug design. :)

I now have a hankering to see if I can actually track down a photo of someone drinking from a Crown Lynn tiki mug in the Wanganui Savage Club circa 1949....