Post #752844 by uncle trav on Tue, Oct 20, 2015 5:50 AM

I believe that TEPCO produced the pointed chin mugs exclusively for Trader Vic's. The design was patented by Vic in 1939.

I imagine the initial run of mugs was fairly limited as Vic's locations were fewer in the early days. This may account for the crispness of the details in what could be considered the first generation of mugs. Here are a couple of photos of the mugs in the earlier restaurants seen up on the shelves behind the bar or in the gift shop area.

As the number of locations grew the number of skull mugs had to as well. Increased demand from gift shop sales, kitchen breakage and the occasional field collector meant higher production levels. As with many things higher production leads to lower quality. Molds wear out and hurried finishing makes for a mug with not much detail. Here is a page from the TEPCO catalog from 1966. Obviously the pointed chin skull mug was still in production at that date.

TEPCO closed its factory in 1968. I assume that shortly after this date is when Trader Vic's went to the cheaper version of the skull mug I believe was produced by OMC. The design was no longer exclusive and was supplied to many other restaurants including Hawaii Kai in NYC. I have the pointed chin mugs both marked and unmarked for Vic's. I have never seen that vesion marked for any other establishments so far. Hope this helps out a little with your question. I'm in no way an expert. I just enjoy the hobby and the above is just an opinion and I may be all wrong.

"Anyone who has ever seen them is thereafter haunted as if by a feverish dream" Karl Woermann

[ Edited by: uncle trav 2015-10-20 05:53 ]