Crypto-Mugs. Do these legends exist and who has them?

Is this the Outrigger Club Fog Cutter Crypto Mug seen earlier in this thread on page 4 that ron-tiki and TabooDan were discussing? I think it might be. There are differences between this one and the ones in the photos, but they look pretty similar.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/330824061033?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

I'm not selling it or bidding on it.

It's sat on my e-Bay watch list for a month but there are other things I want to spend my money on right now.

I'm trying to rein in my spending and not buy every cool mug I see, but I thought somebody else might be interested if it is, in fact, a crypto mug.

Mug is still available??? wow.. I thought it would have sold immediately...Not my mug or listing just saying...

[ Edited by: ron-tiki 2013-02-03 16:23 ]

Hi Tom,
Yes this is the same mug...They're all a little different. made by hand... great eye and a great buy...pretty rare mug...
Ron

Aloha,

As you know, (or maybe not) my collecting interest in mugs is 2-fold. I only care if the ceramic is

a) Made in Hawaii or
b) Used in Hawaii...

The favorites of my small, but potent collection are the handmade mugs for the Trader Vic's Waikiki dating from 1967-1985ish... I've mentioned before that when the Spencecliff Corporation took over the restaurant,m they were not allowed to use the mugs in the mainland shops...

These UGLY, Rough and some what Primitive vessels are beautiful to me... They are also quite rare and even fewer have been found in Hawaii.

I think that part of the reason that I don't find many is that most seem to have been taken to the mainland as keepsakes. I also think that because they are SO different, that they seem like child's projects and thus are often passed over in favor of more (shall we say) traditional mugs...

It is a great (and infrequent) day when I can add an new example to my collection. As was today... I have neither seen this one before in any place or on the TV drink menu from Waikiki... WOWIE!

That's pretty wild!

The bottom of the mug reads "Trader Vic's Hawaii." And even more curiously "Mountain Top Studio..." The style is quite like the Adele Davis mugs marked 'SSS' (Sunset Shore Studio), the early owner of Polynesian Pottery before selling to the Cosina brothers (Daga)

Anyone got the MTS mark on theirs?

On 2013-03-22 16:02, Phillip Roberts wrote:
Aloha,

As you know, (or maybe not) my collecting interest in mugs is 2-fold. I only care if the ceramic is

a) Made in Hawaii or
b) Used in Hawaii...

Hey Phil. I've had this mug for few years. Never seen another surface. Wondering if you knew anything about it:

Says Pat's on the front. I assume Pat's at Punaluu?

Jeanne ceramics hawaii on the bottom

As well as Jeanne Molds with a date of either: 1999,1997,or 1977,

Thanks,
Buzzy Out!

Aloha Buzzy,

I think 1977 would be the better choice for the date... I haven't run into it before but have seen a pair of salt and pepper shakers with that Tiki on it. It's a wonderful mug... Great glaze...

I think your assessment of Pat's at Punaluu is probably right. That or it belonged to Pat. I did once see a milky white mug marked Pat's with a Maori design on it by Polynesian Pottery, but was out bid.

Buzzy. That face is a Coco Joe's tiki. One of them was just up on eBay recently and went for a lot, considering. I'm surprised to see it on a mug made in Hawaii when Coco Joe's was still an active company.

It's a great face, and Beachbumz uses that particular tiki beautifully on a bucket mug and a few others.

On 2013-03-24 07:39, Hale Tiki wrote:
Buzzy. That face is a Coco Joe's tiki. One of them was just up on eBay recently and went for a lot, considering. I'm surprised to see it on a mug made in Hawaii when Coco Joe's was still an active company.

It's a great face, and Beachbumz uses that particular tiki beautifully on a bucket mug and a few others.

Not from a Coco Joe's. It's actually from a Duncan mold. That piece's use is fairly common:

Coco Joe's:

Buzzy Out!

So Coco Joe's was using a Duncan mold?

Thanks for the info, Buzzy!

EDIT: What year is that catalog, by the way...?

[ Edited by: Hale Tiki 2013-03-25 03:46 ]

I was lucky enough to find this early Trader Vic's Fogcutter mug yesterday. I love how tiny towns here in Michigan can still yield treasure. This mug is a bit different from the others posted in the thread. The wahine on the mug has brown hair not black as the others and the rim is blue not brown. All of the other details are spot on so we have another variant. The asking price was four dollars! Thanks.

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

[ Edited by: uncle trav 2013-08-04 05:13 ]

Uncle Trav, that is fantastic. A great and rare mug with a great history. And a great find for being in Michigan! I really love the look and roughness of it. It feels very vibrant.

Congrats!

Hi Trav,any chance that came from Detroit's Trader Vic's, still drooling over your Mauna Loa finds, think I should start shopping on the west coast!

Found this today at a Habitat ReStore in Canton Ohio for 3 bucks. My best find in some time. Polynesian Pottery Octopus mug from the Trader Vic's in Waikiki Circa 1967-74 This one is dated 70.

[ Edited by: Tiki Toli 2013-08-23 20:30 ]

On 2013-08-06 06:33, mudbone wrote:
Hi Trav,any chance that came from Detroit's Trader Vic's, still drooling over your Mauna Loa finds, think I should start shopping on the west coast!

Hi mudbone. I don't think these mugs were used at the Detroit location. The Detroit location opened nearly twenty years after the Oakland location and by that time Vic's would have had a well established supply line of cheaper mugs to distribute to all of the other restaurant locations in the chain. I'm not sure if any of these mugs even survived the move from the original Oakland location to the Emeryville location in 1972. But this is all speculation on my part.

i think i done got me a pele volcano bowl from the tonga lei !!!!

..... as shown in this picture and menu. I believe mine is missing the volcano tip as you can see in the crude drawing on the menu there are three steps to the volcano and in the picture as well. This was a separate piece that served some function, probably to hold 151 as it was served on fire. The volcano is big and hollow inside so they must have needed the room for booze or ice but booze and ice could also fit around the inner rim as well. Any thoughts ?? The bowl is well sculpted and well made. Not some amateur home ceramic deal. The color is brown and it looks like the one in the photo is a dark brown as well. Some say this bowl was supposed to be black but i have no concrete evidence to support that it ever was. It may look black in the photo with the girl to some folks but i see it as dark brown.

[ Edited by: Tipsy McStagger 2013-10-02 17:57 ]

[ Edited by: Tipsy McStagger 2013-10-02 18:02 ]

This should go here as well:

Ren Clark's Polynesian Village Mauna Loa bowl.


An image for the record.
Bowls were unmarked.

Mai-Kai Memories Series Custom ceramic mugs!

[ Edited by: Swanky 2013-10-03 09:13 ]

Tipsy, awesome find!!

Swanky, did you find those Ren Clark bowls somewhere, or just the pix? Kudos to you, if they are in your collection!

those bowls were on ebay a few days back- the auction was for all three of them. I think the high bidder paid $271 for all.

Hawaii 5-0
Season 3
Disc 3
"The Last Eden"

Saw these on a shelf in a bar in the above episode.
Nothing in Ooga under red tiki or red bowl....hmmmm

Anyone seen or have one?

Sorry about photos
Best I could get

Jon

On 2012-12-07 17:54, Tattoo wrote:
A minor crypto mug I guess. I feel it is fitting and I like keeping this thread alive! I found this Coconut Mug with this marking which looks like an "I" but as Philip Roberts pointed out, might be a T and a L combined. Which still doesn't help me figure out who the maker is.

BUT I have found where I have seen this marking before. Which is this Honolulu Trader Vic's Bowl.

And this Honolulu Trader Vic's mug:

Neither the Honolulu Trader Vic's marked bowl, mug or the coconut mug are (obviously) from Polynesian Pottery and I wonder who the maker mark is for. And curious if they came after or before the Polynesian Pottery mugs.

---

The plane! The plane!

[ Edited by: tattoo 2012-12-07 18:50 ]

Here is another mug with the same markings, possibly from the Ilikai Hotel in Hawaii.

Aloha,
That mark is for Latour hawaii..

Here is another mug with the same markings, possibly from the Ilikai Hotel in Hawaii.

Yeah, I had that mug with a sparkley glaze and was attributed to the Ilikai. (It broke in the move.)

Just got this Surfer Girl volcano bowl which is little bit of a conundrum for me.

There are no markings and I have no idea where it came from. It is, however, obviously a variant of the OMC Surfer girl mug and bowls. It even has the two yellow fish.

Similar bowl but from the Aku Aku

The Skipper Kent mug

It seems that Skipper Kent in particular was fond of the surfer girl image and even used the image as an ashtray.

So the surfer girl mug might have originated with Skipper Kent. Which makes me wonder if this bowl is in effect an early Skipper Kent bowl which was then copied, much like the Spurlin pieces, by Otagiri and then mass produced.

This is unfortunately specualtion since there are no marking but it seems a plausible scenario.

I was hoping some other people might know more than I do and help identify this bowl.

On 2013-12-21 13:39, Tattoo wrote:
Just got this Surfer Girl volcano bowl which is little bit of a conundrum for me.

There are no markings and I have no idea where it came from. It is, however, obviously a variant of the OMC Surfer girl mug and bowls. It even has the two yellow fish.

Similar bowl but from the Aku Aku

The Skipper Kent mug

It seems that Skipper Kent in particular was fond of the surfer girl image and even used the image as an ashtray.

So the surfer girl mug might have originated with Skipper Kent. Which makes me wonder if this bowl is in effect an early Skipper Kent bowl which was then copied, much like the Spurlin pieces, by Otagiri and then mass produced.

This is unfortunately specualtion since there are no marking but it seems a plausible scenario.

I was hoping some other people might know more than I do and help identify this bowl.

It could just as easily go the other way. Your bowl is a copy of the bowl used at Skiper Kent's and the Aku Aku and all over. That surfer girl was widely used.

gabbahey posted on page 24 a minor crypto mug. We found one on in our collection but it had a different name on the bottom.

It has a brown and green glaze.

I hope this is interesting enough. Wendy

Interesting enough for me! Cool to see another one.

gabbahey

Here's the Tiki Mug from the Hawaiian Room at the Town House in Omaha, Nebraska.

The mug can be seen on the menu at the very top for serving the Moloka Monsoon.

Another more glossy version of the mug was found earlier by Bamboolodge here:

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=45878&forum=5

Thought it was worth putting it in the Crypto thread. New to me.

What about this thing? Anyone seen it? From the Hilton in Panama.

gabbahey

Watching McCloud "A Cowboy in Paradise" with lots of scenes at the Hilton Hawaiian Village I noticed Louise Lasser sharing the screen with a Diamond Head (Lady Frozen in Carbonite) mug as see watches lounge singer Al Moana (Don Ho).

Later more Al Moana with a Hawaiian Village Sunset (Pearl Diver glass) and a Tropical itch.

'

And last a Hawaiian Eye drink in the leaf patterned bowl/mug.

On 2014-01-12 16:38, Bora Boris wrote:

Watching McCloud "A Cowboy in Paradise" with lots of scenes at the Hilton Hawaiian Village I noticed Louise Lasser sharing the screen with a Diamond Head (Lady Frozen in Carbonite) mug as see watches lounge singer Al Moana (Don Ho).

Nice post Boris! Damn, her stupid hat ruins the shot. You can SEE the bottom of a "The Chimp in Orbit!" behind her. It EXISTS! Someone must find that mug.

Waikiki Tiki; Art, History, and Photographs.
Available now from Bess Press Hawaii.

[ Edited by: Phillip Roberts 2014-01-13 16:29 ]

On 2014-01-13 16:29, Phillip Roberts wrote:
You can SEE the bottom of a "The Chimp in Orbit!" behind her. It EXISTS! Someone must find that mug.

Do you think the chimp is part of the mug or a separate garnish?

On 2014-01-13 17:17, kenbo-jitsu wrote:
Do you think the chimp is part of the mug or a separate garnish?

In my opinion, it's one of these plastic drink monkey garnishes....

Like these.

Nice eye Phillip! I was so busy freaking out about the Diamond Head mug I didn't notice.

Here's another shot with her dumb hat still blocking the Chimp in Orbit mug. :(

They'll show it again and we can grab it then.

On 2014-01-13 18:45, Phillip Roberts wrote:
In my opinion, it's one of these plastic drink monkey garnishes....

That seems reasonable enough. The mug itself then is just an elongated Collins glass, white with thin vertical black stripes. I love the name, "Chimp in Orbit". This was back in those heady days when our country was actually capable of putting a chimp in orbit. I'm guessing the drink must have had banana liqueur in it?

The Trader Vic's coffee grog mug with the tall headdress except in red. I've never seen a red version nor with such sharp detail. Cool find

Marked either "12AO13" or 12AD13" on bottom.

Does anyone know who made these type of markings and decipher them. The Ooga Mooga page describes the grog mug as being from Red Wing Pottery. But from the scant research I did, this does not seem like a Red Wing marking. Does anyone know? Any help would be appreciated.

WOW! Where'd you find that?

Tattoo,

That's fantastic! Where did you find it?

Based on the detail, I'd say that's likely a later remake of the mug, but who knows. What are the dimensions?

T-shirts based on vintage tiki matchbooks: TikiTees

Immortalize your name for eternity by contributing to The Tikipedia!

[ Edited by: TikiTacky 2014-02-16 20:54 ]

I found the mug on the internet and it was send from Rancho Cordova which is near Sacramento. Which is not too far from Oakland and Trader Vic HQ. The mug is only 6.5" tall. The bottom edge markings say Trader Vic on one side and USA on the other.

Looking at pictures on Ooga Mooga, it matches the black "tall head dress" versions of this mug exactly except for the color and sharpness.

Regardless of the year it was made -- although it would be great to know!-- I really love that red glaze. The detail pops so much better than on the black versions.

Hope some info surfaces for you Tattoo--thanks for sharing!

I'm not sure how rare it is but I have the Tapa Punch Mug from the Hilton Hawaiian Village.

[ Edited by: vegastikidude 2014-02-22 19:39 ]

Not sure if this octopus mug fits in here with crypto, but I found this one that holds 26oz at a flea market this past weekend. Sorry about the hula girl mug, but this was the only photo I took of the mugs found that day. It looks like the one in the Trader Vic's menu but doesn't have the Trader Vic's mark. I did read something here by Kohalacharms on octopus mugs.

thanks

Saw this online and it looked different. It seemed like a perfect cross between the 1944 Trader Vic's Samoan Fog Cutter mug and the later Tepco Hula girl mug with the bird.

It most resembles the 1944 TV mug but it's not. It's definitely different. Besides the added birds on top, and it's also a different manufacturer. Not as handmade and it has a smaller concave bottom.

No doubt a copy of the original TV mug which then morphed into the more common Tepco Hula mug with the birds. Which then morphed into the Harvey's hula girl mug by Otagiri.

Anyone have any thoughts on this???

Great detective work! Looks like the missing link in the evolutionary chain for sure.

Yup, that's the TV Waikiki octopus. There are several styles of the mug by Polynesian Pottery that the drink was served in, but that's the earliest. Lucky you!

On 2014-03-06 01:58, tikipaka wrote:
Not sure if this octopus mug fits in here with crypto, but I found this one that holds 26oz at a flea market this past weekend. Sorry about the hula girl mug, but this was the only photo I took of the mugs found that day. It looks like the one in the Trader Vic's menu but doesn't have the Trader Vic's mark. I did read something here by Kohalacharms on octopus mugs.

thanks

On 2010-11-13 00:07, Sabu The Coconut Boy wrote:
Has anyone found the Luau Cup, Frustrating Fanny, or Voodoo Bowl from Club Luau in Houston, TX?

How about the Dr. Munk, Log-Cutter, or Keg O' Rum?

Guess what I found this weekend:

Can you say, "personal Holy Grail"?
Houston tiki - from an Albert Gee establishment, is my quest.
And this is, to my knowledge, the first mug ever found from any of Albert Gee's 3 tiki establishments (Poly-Asian, Poly-Asian West, and Club Luau at Ding How, his Chinese restaurant one block north of our Trader Vic's).

I plan to keep one and sell the other.

No mark on the bottom, rather thick. Ceramic. Appear to be handmade and hand-painted.
Came from an antique store (who got them at an estate sale) in Galveston. I suppose they were a memento of a night out on the town in nearby Houston, many decades ago.
And now they are making me much happier than they ever made their original owners...

Those are great. The best part is that they each appear completely hand painted. A real rarity!

Amazing, rare find, Formikahini! Congratulations.

(Remember to consume all cocktails in this mug with chopsticks, as illustrated in the menu.)

[ Edited by: Sabu The Coconut Boy 2014-05-21 12:18 ]