Post #730188 by Club Nouméa on Thu, Oct 23, 2014 2:47 PM

That's all good and fine too BigBro, but the starting question for this thread was quite simple: "What was the first Tiki mug?"

Not "what was the first tiki mug served in an American Polynesian-style bar or restaurant". And discussion on this topic is not even strictly limited to US-manufactured mugs, as we know that a large number of early "American" tiki mugs were actually made in Japan. :)

It's not that, down here in New Zealand, we don't get the whole North American sub-culture that you have discovered and outlined, it's just that it is not as unique as you would have us believe.

I find this Crown Lynn item fascinating, as tiki mugs are what are presented to us as being a unique hallmark of Californian-style tiki culture. Yet when a tiki mug is presented that appears to predate all of them, it is ruled out of contention because it was not used at Trader Vic's or wherever. Curious....

That Crown Lynn mug is not a traditional Maori artifact; it is a mid-century design from 1949 that appears to predate the first American tiki mug (which seems to date from 1953, judging from the beautiful pieces shown by Dustycajun).

Tikis were integrated into popular iconography and everyday items in New Zealand decades before they were in the US, and this Crown Lynn mug is just one example. Others could be pointed to in terms of items such as ashtrays, beer bottles, postcards, postage stamps, book covers and so on. Such items may sit uncomfortably with theories regarding the primacy and uniqueness of US tiki pop artifacts, but they continue to exist nonetheless. :)

So we now have a tiki mug from 1949 and it happens to come from New Zealand. Are there any earlier ones out there from the US? Or Japan? :)