Skull Mugs and what to look out for..

I've just won on ebay a skull mug from the Mai Kai after months of looking a Skull Mugs that were listed, what in your opinion are the skull mugs to look out for? What makers are desirable?

Great question. And just to tag onto it...what skull mugs are currently used by Trader Vic's?

Here is a Trader Vic's skull mug in situ at the Beverly Hills location last December:

The original skull mugs used in TV's were produced by TEPCO, which no longer exists. Tiki Farm is probably producing the 'reproductions'. I dunno.

On 2004-02-26 09:17, atomictonytiki wrote:
...what in your opinion are the skull mugs to look out for? What makers are desirable?

Lack of globbiness is what one wants, and the pronounced chin of the TEPCO skull. As far as I can tell, that mug (the rear handled one) went through three design stages. The first one dates back to the 40s. As one can see on page 93 of the BOT, when all the veins and cracks are well pronounced, it has the most unnerving effect.

The same design on page 98 of TIKI QUEST looks already globbier, while the ones on the next page (Hawaii Kai/Goddess) are one design step down the line, already less detailed in their basic concept. The one in Hummuu's pic looks actually more detailed than those, check the teeth for well pronounced gaps and sharply cut holes.

There was one design AFTER these two that I find the least desirable, most globby.

Off course, any restaurant imprints, like Trader Vic's or Hawaii Kai make them more desirable and rare, there are lots without.

That TV mug is huge, most skull mugs I've seen have been smaller, more in the line of a novelty mug. So would I be right in saying that tiki skull mugs are bigger, does size matter?

[ Edited by: atomictonytiki 2011-12-10 23:39 ]

Er... well... you have to understand that I am small. Very small. That skull mug is bigger than some others I've seen, but my hands may be making it look bigger than it is.

I've had a hot buttered rum at TV's and the mugs are deceptive. The centre of the mug is a lot smaller than it looks from the overall size.

Hmmmmmmmmm hot buttered rum.

Here are some skull images that I've managed to assemble from saved auction photos. I like seeing these in a side-by-side comparison. There are lots more skulls out there but many have no tiki affiliation. I would consider all of these to be tiki-related.

• Row 1: Trader Vic's (v1), Trader Vic's (v2), Trader Vic's (v3), Trader Vic's (Green), Trader Pang
• Row 2: Kahiki (Mug No.2-v1), Kahiki (Mug No.2-v2), Orchids (R10-v1), Orchids (R10-v2), Mai Kai
• Row 3: Hawaii Kai, Hawaii Kai (Goddess), Hawaii Kai (Short), Tiki Bob's, Hawaiian Room
• Row 4: Islander (L.A.), Islander (Stockton-Brown), Islander (Stockton-Short), Munktiki, Shag

Obviously many of these establishments shared designs from the same maker. However, what is not shown here is that the restaurant/bar name was often printed on the backs of the mugs or by the handle. In row 1 above I think you can see the 3 different "chins" on the first three Trader Vic's mugs that BigBro spoke of. My personal favorites here are the 2 from the Islander in Stockton (bottom row).

ModMana :drink:

[ Edited by: ModMana on 2004-03-04 21:41 ]

COOOOOL!

Thanks for posting those ModMana!!

I've always loved the skull mugs. Really great to see them all like that.

Thanks again!

That is very cool Mod Mana! I haven't seen a couple of those. I have heard of other people snaging mug photos off of ebay. It's really a cool idea.

Here's pics of the skull mug i won on ebay, still with its OMC sticker on the bottom.
A lot of the skull mugs i've seen listed are definatly more in the line of "novelty mug" that were never intended to be used in tiki bars. i wonder if in fact was the skull mug appropriated by the early tiki bar owners to be used in their pantheon of mugs due to their avalibility from pottery suppliers?

[ Edited by: atomictonytiki on 2004-03-05 06:28 ]

[ Edited by: atomictonytiki on 2004-03-05 06:28 ]

I believe that Trader Vic was the first to use the skull mug, as early as the 40s, so that might predate even novelty mug makers.

In mod mana's montage, the one in the far left upper corner is the most desirable in my opinion, the side handled ones always seemd more like novelty mugs to me (EXCEPT when they say MAI KAI or TIKI HUT on them, of course, then they are true TikiBAR mugs!)

WOW! Really helpful post! I just bought a marked TV skull mug that looks to be version 3. Now I'm curious whether anybody knows the general timeline of the three versions of TV skulls; specifically, how old might this one be?

Thanks!

Classic Silver Line Boats

[ Edited by: SilverLine 2005-10-03 09:05 ]

I know when Tiki Farm did their skull mug , Iwent on a skull mug craze . The one I have yet to get is the Hawaii Kai " Goddess of Love " for some reason I love that mug .Anyone wanna trade something for it ??

There are also two unique ones worth mentioning:

The Tiki Tiki Japan skull mug (Tikifish posted it), and

The Trader Vic's/Polynesio Havana skull mug.

Never seen that design anywhere else. (It has no signature, but it's from there, they sent one to me as exchange for the BoT.)Sorry, have no pic.

I found something kind of interesting about the Trader Vic's Skull Mugs, but I'm not sure if it's just interesting to me, or an actual "whoa, we didn't know that" find.

A few weeks ago I went up to Minnesota to visit my girlfriend's mother. Her mom has relatives (now passed) who worked at the Red Wing Pottery company, which is nearby. I was thumbing though a book she had on the pottery, and came across this:

Right next to it on the page is a Trader Vic's Cocoanut Mug, so is there a Red Wing/TEPCO connection, or did they both produce them?

Get the latest tiki info at Tiki Talk, the Enchanted Tiki Blog.
http://tikitalk.astropad.com

[ Edited by: Hot Lava 2005-10-06 07:13 ]

I don't know whether this belongs here or in the Drinks section, but... what, other than the Black Stripe, are the skull mugs used for? I have two of 'em and I haven't the foggiest what's supposed to go in them.

Although I haven't ordered it I believe the Hot Buttered Rum is served in the skull mug.

Resurrecting this thread because I have a few questions.

One, I have two of the Tepco "Trader Vic's" skull mugs, but they only say Tepco, US, China, nothing about TRader Vics. Also, I have one that's white rather than the standard off white, with no marking what so ever. The detail is much crisper as well, as though it was a first generation mold, or it was not as heavily glazed. Any one know anything about these mugs?

Also, I have one of these, and as the title suggests, it's small. Today I just picked up two that look to be the same mug, same clay body, same glaze, but much larger, and I'm not finding them on Ooga Mooga.Any one have any ideas?

On 2015-10-17 22:37, Teadoir wrote:
Resurrecting this thread because I have a few questions.

One, I have two of the Tepco "Trader Vic's" skull mugs, but they only say Tepco, US, China, nothing about TRader Vics. Also, I have one that's white rather than the standard off white, with no marking what so ever. The detail is much crisper as well, as though it was a first generation mold, or it was not as heavily glazed. Any one know anything about these mugs?

Also, I have one of these, and as the title suggests, it's small. Today I just picked up two that look to be the same mug, same clay body, same glaze, but much larger, and I'm not finding them on Ooga Mooga.Any one have any ideas?

Any photos of the mugs you are asking about? It may help pin down some info.

One is very definitely white. The white one has no markings. I have another off white one I found earlier this week, and it's detail is not nearly so crisp. Looking at this second off white one I got the yesterday day, it's as crisp as the white one.And neither one says anything about Trader Vics

It occurred to me to look in Tiki Quest,and sure enough, as I though I remembered, it mentions the big one as well.

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 ]

This pic was taken 2 weeks ago at Polinesio in Havana. The barkeep knew nothing about em.

Interesting. The Bali Hai mug made a long trip south. It's from the Lynnfield MA location. There is a Vic's Fog Cutter mug. The skull mug in the lower right corner I have seen before but the upper one is a mystery. The Coffee Grog mug is a different mold than I have seen before. Very cool.

On 2015-10-21 03:24, uncle trav wrote:
Interesting. The Bali Hai mug made a long trip south. It's from the Lynnfield MA location. There is a Vic's Fog Cutter mug. The skull mug in the lower right corner I have seen before but the upper one is a mystery. The Coffee Grog mug is a different mold than I have seen before. Very cool.

Uncle T, the bar mgr. Osvaldo said that the Bali Hai mug was a gift from a visitor from the USA. That was very nice of the gifter. Osvaldo has a lot of enthusiasm for all things tiki.
Cheers

Thanks for the info Uncle TRavis! It would be nice to find a time line on the pointy chins. When they were using the Trader Vics markings, when they just used the Tepco, etc. I'm also curious where the white ones fit in. Seems like the majority are the off white color, but I've seen some of the white ones on Ooga Mooga as well.

On the other part of my question... The drip glaze skulls. My understanding is that no one knows who made them? Over the last week, I've found several items, that while not tiki, were interesting to me because they seem to be not only the same glaze, but more unusaly, the same clay body. You don't usually see a red clay used in these sorts of ceramics, so it's got me thinking these we're all made by the same company.

Also, my small mug has a foil sticker that says "A Mark L exclusive". Any ideas on that one any one?