Show us your Vintage Mugs (Coffee, Beer or Other)

I have a few 30's and 40's coffee mugs to post... please share your vintage mugs & cups!

My set of four Restaurant Ware coffee muggs. W. S. George “Hotel” mugs from the 1930s (the 106D on the bottom dates it to the 30s)

I often use these heavy 1943 Homer Laughlin White Restaurant Ware Coffee Mugs.

“F” for June. “43” for 1943. “N" for the Newell potteries in Newell, West Virgnia. 6 for the specific plant number.

Plain milk glass one on the left is Federal. The cowboy one is Hazel Atlas.

One of my favorite things to collect is WWII era 1 Pint mugs made in England by many potteries for the Royal Air Force and also used by US Army Air Forces and Royal Canadian Air Forces. Typically filled with coffee or tea and after a mission often spiked with whiskey!
“Mass-produced by the million to Government specification, and likely to damage reputation of British Potters.” - Pottery Gazette and Glass Trade Review, May 1943




here are but a few photos I have showing the RAF 1 pint mugs in use.

Two WWII era NAAFI (Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes) tea/coffee cups. NAAFI was established through Winston Churchill as a Not for Profit organization December 6, 1920 to run recreational establishments needed by the British Armed Forces, and to sell goods to servicemen and their families. It’s the equivalent of an american post-exchange. I purchased these from a gentleman in England who found these and others in storage where they were crated for many years at RAF BINBROOK . The crates were dated 1944/1945 and acquired when the base closed down.

World War I era patriotic coffee mug depicting Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg (1847-1934)

V.C. Brunswick said:

World War I era patriotic coffee mug depicting Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg (1847-1934)

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that is really nice!

this is a common and easy one to get. the 1940s Tepco China Army Medical Corps mug. I like the weight of these old mugs. There are a few variations on the design, shape and logo for these.

Otto von Bismarck Beer Stein
circa 1900

how to determine an authentic Victor mug. (The company was named for its location in the village of Victor, upstate New York.)
At the height of the company’s mug manufacturing, there were about 15 employees working in that section. There were numerous people who put the handles on, and later, it became necessary to know exactly who put which handle onto which mug. Imagine if a run of mugs suddenly had problems. How do you figure out which employee needs more training?

The company began stamping the word ‘VICTOR’ on the bottom side of each mug for branding where it previously had used a painted stamp. However, few knew that the practice served an additional internal purpose.

If you look closely at the stamps, many have certain sections of text missing. Each employee had their own stamp that they would use with a unique marking indicating their having worked on the mug. One may have been the leg of an ‘R’ removed, or half of the letter ‘I’ like the one pictured here. The subtle tactic became a function of quality control.

Right around 1980, Chinese companies began to produce the iconic white coffee mugs and distribute them worldwide. Many Chinese knock-offs even had the word ‘VICTORY’ stamped in the bottom, but with a poorly pressed ‘Y’, so at quick glance it might look like ‘VICTOR’. They used a Serif font whereas the original is sans serif. Victor Insulators started including the stamp ‘MADE IN U.S.A.’ on the bottom of the mugs right around 1984. The mugs ran a few more years until 1987 and completely phased out by 1990.
the mug on the left is an imposter. The Victor label is serifed.
The mug on the right, a genuine Victor Coffee Mug, is labeled with sans serif type with unique employee intentional "defect" errors as manufacturer tells.

I'm thrilled to add two rare YMCA Grindley Hotelware Mobile Canteen mugs to my collection! Very hard to get these. I acquired them from an antique dealer in France so these could have been used in either WWI or WWII as the back stamp style dates these between 1908 and 1932!)

I would love to believe these were in use just after the Normandy Invasion as the British YMCA mobile canteen landed on Normandy beaches the 29th of July 1944. The American Red Cross also participated in the rear of the invasion of Normandy.**


Almost as soon as the war broke out, YMCA developed the mobile canteens to bring refreshments to the troops with second-hand vans, painted OD green, first used in East London and by the end of 1940 there were 500 vans bringing refreshments to troops, rescue workers and victims of bombing raids. These Vans (a.k.a. Tea car, Tea Wagon, Clubmobiles) also travelled to Belgium and France. At the retreat of Dunkirk, YMCA remained on the beaches until ordered to leave.





**In preparation for the invasion of Normandy, June, 1944, a smaller, 2-1/2-ton GMC truck was converted to a clubmobile, with the necessary kitchen containing doughnut machine, coffee urns and the like. Close to one hundred of them were made ready. Red Cross girls who had worked on the larger clubmobile in Great Britain, were given driving instruction in order to manage the truck clubmobile. Beginning in July, 1944, as soon after the invasion that it was safe to send Red Cross personnel onto the Continent, ten groups of 32 Red Cross girls each, along with eight clubmobiles per group, a cinemobile, three supply trucks, trailers and three British Hillman trucks, were sent to France to be attached to various US Army Corps.

Each clubmobile group traveled with the rear echelon of the army Corps and got its assignments from the army for serving troops at rest from the front. The service continued through France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany, until V-E Day, May 7, 1945.

(Other organizations also ran mobile canteens and served at various USO clubs and services. NAAFI, American Red Cross, The Salvation Army, Jewish Welfare Board (JWB), National Catholic Community Service (NCCS), National Travelers Aid Association and the YWCA / YMCA

I finally added a Watchman (Watch Duty) hand warmer mug to my collection of WWII era coffee mugs. I was waiting for the right one to come along and this one matches a 1942/1943 marked collection of restaurant ware that I have from McNicol China Clarksburg, West Virginia. Many companies made handless watchman mugs for the Navy/Marines but I had no idea McNicol China was one of those companies so when it came up it was a no-brainer-must-have for my collection especially as I have the matching saucer that works well with it.

This thing is very heavy and very thick! Can't wait to use it tomorrow morning!
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I got a couple of heavy 10 sided half pint "The Lantern Tankard" Beer Mugs popular in the 1920s, 30s and 40's. Frosted one for a hard root beer after a long hot day at work.
Hey Moe! How about a Sarsaparilla?

I have just one of these & it is unmarked.

Hurricane Jack said:

I have just one of these & it is unmarked.

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Thats really cool and well done! Intricate work on that before it was fired .