My ACME cafeteria mug

US & UK Vitrified Restaurant & Diner mugs and CL 419 Navy mug

I inherited the mug on the right from a flatmate 25 years ago and it was my number one coffee mug for at least a decade.
I always thought it was Chinese, and then I googled Wallace China and found they were a company based in Los Angeles.
Wallace China (1931-1964) supplied diners across the States for decades, and the military too. According to a numbering system I found on the site restaurantwarecollectors.com, as mine is marked with "LU", it is "an earlier piece" that defies the known "number-hyphen-letter" ID system.
You may have seen similar mugs on TV, on M.A.S.H. for example.
They were often personalised as you would likely see on an eBay search (as I did).
American diners still use similar mugs. I drank from one in Vermont a couple of years ago.
You can buy similar today, as I noted on a recent visit to Flotsam and Jetsam in Ponsonby Road. (Made in China!)
The mug on the left is a recent addition, from Arkwrights in Dargaville: I couldn't resist it. Tepco, the Technical Porcelain and China Ware Company of El Cerrito Ca, was founded in 1918 and the factory demolished in 1966. They had no date-codes on their wares so I only know that this mug precedes 1966. I believe this colour is known as "Tan". The base stamp differs from those currently for sale on eBay.
Crown Lynn made similar mugs to the American diner mugs and I have seen one recently on tm, but have not located the number yet.

The Crown Lynn mug is a 419. It can be seen in the gallery.
There was also one on trademe recently:
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=687208185

Well well well.

Guess what I found in the 10c bin at Hospice.
A saving of $22.90 from the price (incl. post.) offered to me on trademe.

I now have my very own Crown Lynn Vitrified .419. restaurant/diner mug.
It's in good condition and I like it!

Sorry no pic as my broadband has disappeared.

There is the trademe one to look at in the post above or check the gallery at:
http://newzealandpottery.forumotion.net/gallery/Crown-Lynn-Shapes-Gallery/400-to-499/419-pic_2027.htm

I presume one has posted elsewhere as there is a gallery pic from HeatherT but I wouldn't know where to look. Tried Vitrified Tableware.

I also picked up another, different, American one at SPCA.
Sadly someone has used a metal scourer and left those grey burnishing marks.
Anyone know how to get rid of those?
(I'll try the H2O2 shortly)

What was one vitrified diner mug last year is now another collection of 4. Oh dear!

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6/2/14
4th mug is Homer Laughlin China Co (West Virginia) Fiesta.
Laughlin introduced the Fiestaware range in 1936 and dropped it in the late 60s (Wikipedia), reintroducing it in 1986. New mugs from the original moulds can be bought today. Fiestaware is a range of brightly coloured tableware but my mug is white.
Described by one eBay seller as a ring-handled mug, this particular mug is sometimes referred to as the "Tom and Jerry" mug, after an alcoholic egg and milk drink of the same name which was served hot.

-------------
Fiesta



Crown Lynn .419.



4 mugs: CL 491 (left) and 3 Americans


--------
5/5/14
Two more

Backstamps read:
(1)
Sterling
Vitrified China
East Liverpool Ohio
USA
(2)
T&W Young Ltd
Ambassador
Vitreous Ironstone
Dunn Bennett & Co Ltd
Burslem
Made in England
(AND)
YMCA

I have another yet to photograph.

Have you tried the Magic Eraser to remove the marks?

ambrosia,
Please tell me:
What is the magic eraser, and where can I get one?

------
Later

After discussion with Val and Kat, but in the absence of Jiff, I cleaned it with Chemico.
Great result.

Like the railway mugs, the 419 might be a copy of a Grindley mug:
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Home-living/Kitchen/Cups-glasses/Cups-saucers/auction-724715413.htm

The 419s were still being produced in 1967. There was one marked Wellington Meat Export Co. Ltd. On tm recently with a 1967 vitrified stamp.

Apparently Fiesta mugs like mine above, but in red glaze, are very highly radioactive!
Way, way, way, more so than Uranium glass.

I have another 419. This one has a monogram that I think has appeared on the forum before, but I don't remember it having been identified yet.

Jonno, as you were so helpful with the Navy Ward Room monogram, I'm hoping you might know this one too. The 419 shape is identified in the gallery as "Navy Mug".

Is that an anchor and a lanyard?

Other points of interest.
This mug, from some time between 1955 and 1962 is heavier, thicker and bigger in all dimensions than my earlier 48-55 one.
On the base it has the single star vitrified stamp, the impressed number with dots AND, just visible above it in the photo, a small impressed "F".

Jeremy, I think it is one of 2 possibilities. Either something to do with scouting or Tatum Park. Here's what led me in this direction

Thanks Anne,
Google gives that image result for a UK ebay auction titled "Boy Scout Badge TATUM Wood Badge Training New Zealand, but I really don't know what to make of that.
I think one may have sold on tm as well but the image has gone.
I will ponder.

I also have a pennant or flag with the same symbol on it, and the words Tatum Park. Before it sold, it was run by the Scouting Association, and was where all the NZ Jamborees were held.

I concur ,Tatum Park near Otaki used to be the national training centre for scout leaders . Bequeathed by a Mr Tatum.