Help on this mug -> From a restaurant or craft project?

Here's a mug I got hold of here in the UK:

Now, I originally thought that it was one of those made as a home craft project, but looking at it a little closer, the concave base seems professionally made, and the inside seems very smooth. The base looks just like the ones from those older mugs.

Certainly the features have been 'carved' in by hand, but if these were made in a place where labour was inexpensive, the manufacturer could probably afford to have a few people on the production line making thse mugs 'individually'.

Another thing is that I've actually got 4 of them, and they all differ slightly in the features, but are very very similar overall. Would someone go to the effort of making (at least) 4 mugs for a home project?

Anyway, I'd love to hear any ideas about their origin. Can anyone shed a light on these?

Trader Woody

I have a pair of tiki mugs from malta that look like originally came from a mould and then the details been added later, the roughness of your mugs remind me off them.
I'll post a pic when i find my camera.

On 2005-02-01 10:24, atomictonytiki wrote:
I have a pair of tiki mugs from malta that look like originally came from a mould and then the details been added later, the roughness of your mugs remind me off them.
I'll post a pic when i find my camera.

Were they from a bar out there? I'd like to see them - sounds interesting from a number of angles!

BTW - Can anyone who knows ceramics give the inside scoop on how these might have been made?

Trader Woody

Hey TW,
Looks like it was made the standard way; cast from a slip mold, fired, and glazed. The only hand building may have been adding on the handle, but I can not see the joint in the photos. The glaze is pretty globby and seems to really obscure the design too much. Probably means the glaze application was too heavy, which means it was definitely dipped. Cool mug, if you ever run acrooss another you know where to find me.

[ Edited by: atomictonytiki on 2005-02-14 10:24 ]

here the pics as promised..

..as you can see the mug is rough as fuck most of the detail seems to be scratched into the wet slip after moulding.
Since there are a lot of local potteries in the Med I think mugs such as these are produced as stop-gaps while waiting for real mugs to arrive or just as cheap knock offs, like this majorcan Paul Marshall copy i also own..

[ Edited by: atomictonytiki 2009-01-21 09:25 ]