Cool Hula Mug

My buddy Gavin found this cool mug at a garage sale. Ive seen ones like it, not this exactly though. Unmarked, very heavy.



Anyone have one? anyone seen one? I checked Ooga Mooga and Tiki Hula's excellent site, nada
These are from Mikes site, very similar.

http://www.tikiroom.net/
Mahalo,
Al

[ Edited by: al-ii 2007-02-27 18:16 ]

it's a worthless, japanese tourist piece. i'll give you $2 for it. pick it up next week.

kthnx

The topless girl picking the fruit is definitely an early Trader Vic's mug, and since the other fog cutter shaped ones are often associated with TV's, this one might be, too.

Yeah, total junk. You can pay me to take it from you.
Nice score Al. I've never seen one like it.

Great score!

Al,
That is an early mug by Tepco for Trader Vic's. Hard to find those, good score!
-Duke

A nice piece indeed!! I have one and the line-work and colors are beautiful. You're right, it is quite heavy too.
Here's a link to mine on Ooga-Mooga
Aloha,
:tiki:

Guys are we sure his is an early Trader Vic's mug (Brown Green) I have an identical set of 6 mugs I am trying to identify.

These were made for Trader Vics, I have a few.

it's weird that there aren't any markings on the bottom

One thing I noticed just now the first post has brown on top green on the bottom and mine are opposite Green Top/Brown Bottom.

They must have put them in the painting machine upside down.

For the original one , right? because aren't they usually brown bottom/green top?
and any answer for Tikipug's statement?

[ Edited by: martinisandmore 2013-10-27 20:00 ]

anyone have an answer for TikiPug's statement I am just getting into collecting and don't want to be wrong.

[ Edited by: martinisandmore 2013-10-29 14:56 ]

It looks like a hobbyist mug; a copy of the trader vic's mug that looks like this:

[ Edited by: mermaid1111 2014-09-23 00:01 ]

Just came across this thread as I have an unmarked, definitely older hula girl mug I was trying to ID (before listing).

Though the painting isn't as refined as the outlined hula girl I doubt it (or the ones posted above) is a hobbyist/home craft mugs, or at least it's not like any of the hobbyist mugs I've even encountered. It's heavy, has the high space in the bottom, and the glaze is of a restaurant use quality. The highlight paint also has the look of detail work quickly applied by a practiced hand as one sees in hand detailed production pieces. And a hobbyist would probably make sure the nipple was more distinct on her breast.

I am certain yours is a real Tepco fogcutter mug. It might just be a much later cast of the mold where the features are less well defined. The less detailed paint job just shows you that they were all hand painted and skills levels varied and suffered as the company grew.

Here's mine:

It seems there's quite a variety (in paint scheme and sharpness) of these Hula girl mugs out there but they are all Tepco. And not a hobbyist version. To me, a tell tale sign that it's not a hobbyist is the indentation on the bottom. For the most part, all hobbyist mugs have a flat bottom. Also, you'll notice that Tepco products are very heavy and solid with nearly zero, if any, crazing. They are rock hard and nearly indestructible. This has to do with the firing process they used which was at a much higher temperature for a longer time. Apparently a very cost prohibitive process that nearly no one else did. Solid thick construction with no crazing are hallmarks of a Tepco piece. They will look almost new. It makes Tepco unique and somewhat easy to identify. We can probably guess that in the early days, Tepco was a smaller company with more artistic hands on the assembly line. And as they grew, the artistic quality suffered. Later Tepco pieces in general are not hand painted anymore and become more and more monotone.

So congratulations on your early and amazing Tepco fogcutter. But is it Trader Vic's? On this we can only guess. Tepco was not exclusive to Trader Vic's so it could have been used at a million other other mom and pop south seas bars that were popping up all over the place at that time. However, Tepco is Californian and the mug is probably from the 40s so it does limit the places it might have been used at. Either way, a great piece.

An interesting sister piece is this later version of the Trader Vic Samoan fog cutter.

Similar to the early 1944 version but less detailed. Still rare and undeniably Tepco. There's one on ebay right now which is worth getting if you have some early Hula fog cutter mugs.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-HAWAII-South-Pacific-Mood-pottery-Bar-Mug-PALM-TREES-and-Hula-Girl-/221918678284?hash=item33ab624d0c:g:XBUAAOSwEeFVP81d

Not my auction FYI

[ Edited by: Tattoo 2015-11-09 17:51 ]