This is actually the first Taylor & Ng Mug I’ve picked up, which is a bit surprising. I thought I might have at least come across the reproductions that they’ve started to make at the thrift, but for some reason I haven’t seen any besides this one.

I believe this is from the “Primitives” line and features the artwork of designer Win Ng, as do all the Taylor & Ng mugs. It’s hard to describe the scene but it’s mostly animals in a very stylized scene. The main characters appear to be Hippos, but there’s also a funny looking frog on the mug. The color is a really dark blue.

I’ve seen that this mug has been reproduced, but I believe this one to be the original from 1979. It does have an inmold mark on the bottom stamped “JAPAN” in a circle, although it’s very hard to read. The newer mugs are made in China, but I haven’t seen the bases of those mugs so I can’t comment on whether it’ll be difficult to tell the newer ones apart. I’m not sure if it matters to collectors (it’s not like the older mugs sell for a ton more than brand new ones), but if it matters to you, then you should try and check whether or not it’s new or not before getting them. If it doesn’t matter, they sell the new mugs for about $6 on the site.

I’m somewhat surprised we haven’t come across more Ben Seibel designs for Mikasa at the thrift. I believe that because the items are marked that people (read: Ebay sellers) are starting to catch on to the name or something. I actually saw three of these nice Potter’s Art mugs made by Seibel at the thrift, but the other two were chipped so I only picked up the one example. The pattern is known as Buckskin and features a two-toned brown cup with a white speckle glaze on the inside.

If the outside was a monochromatic brown, I would say that it reminds me a lot of Metlox’s California Tempo which features the same color combination. If you’re interested in Ben Seibel items, you absolutely have to take a look at the website abenseibeldesign which has tons of information. According to the site, the Potter’s Art lines were produced sometime in the 1980s. I believe these are actually cups which came with saucers, though it has a mug-ish look to me.

The jadeite mugs were a nice find the other day at the thrift. I’m not 100% sure if they’re Fire King at this point, but I’m guessing they might be. They could also very well be newer repros, but the way that the glass is (swirly inclusions inside) and the heft make it seem like it’s older. This style of this cup/mug reminds me very much of the Pyrex Restaurant Ware #723 “St. Denis” style mugs. They’re about 3 inches tall and the handles are awfully small - can’t seem to get my big fingers inside the loop.

I’ve seen some similar Fire King jadeite mugs online, but most of those are marked on the bottom. In addition, the handles are more round. The fact that there are no markings on the bottom doesn’t mean that it still isn’t from Anchor Hocking - we have quite a few other cups (Jane Ray, etc.) that aren’t marked on the bottom. I know sometimes they were shipping with foil stamps instead of a permanent stamp into the glass.

Whether they’re old or new, we still like them a lot. They were a great find at only a dollar a piece.

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I’ve seen these Pyrex mugs a few times on Ebay. My thought was that they were part of another beverage server set that Pyrex was known to make which featured six of the 1410 style mugs like these plus a carafe. However, I haven’t seen the full set yet - we won’t put them in the pyrexlove ref until we find out what they are.

They have a really unusual color combination, bands of baby blue flowers on an avocado verde base. I’m not sure why they chose this particular color scheme - I was thinking maybe the carafe would provide more answers. There are four different flower bands, all of them different and interestingly not equidistantly spaced. A Flickr reader has noted that perhaps the 4 bands correspond to the different seasons of the year. So, the top row would be Summer (roses?), the next one would be Fall (mums/asters?), the next would be Winter (holly perhaps?) and the last one would be Spring (the flowers from the spring blossom pattern).

This is a really interesitng mug that I have no idea about the maker. The mug and the font of the words on it reminded me of something from the 50s, but I still don’t know whether it is new or not. There are no markings on the bottom of the mug at all. It’s a strange shape with a very sharp angled handle. It is mostly just a brownish glaze and the mug is rather heavy duty - like restaurant china. The words “Kup-O-Ko” are in raised letters on the side - I assume that’s short for “Cup of Coffee”?