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Discover Mid-America — December 2005

Cups can reveal their owners

Cup: (before 1000; ME and OE (Middle and Old English) cuppe 1. a small, open container for beverages, usually bowl-shaped and with a handle.

Don’t we all take our cups and mugs for granted? The first cup, I assume, was the cupped hand, which was dipped into a stream or lake to get a drink of water. After that, some clever cave man either found a rigid leaf that held liquid or scraped a soft piece of wood deeply enough that it would hold liquid. It is interesting to try to imagine the development of what we use with such abandon.

All this “deep” thought about cups was brought about because I stopped at a yard sale and bought a cup, actually, it was mug — like in that it does not need a saucer. It was a plain white porcelain souvenir cup made at the turn of the century in Germany. What intrigued me was that the lady having the sale said that it had been her German grandmother’s. But what I read on the side of the cup in lovely Old English lettering (which did look like Old German) was: A PRESENT FROM CLEETHORPE. Being a person who has to KNOW the proper name of things, I went to my Britannica Atlas and looked under Germany for this name…and got nowhere. But I found that near the east coast of England there were several “Thorpe” suffixes (it means village) and there was Cleethorpe!

So I began to look at the several old cups that I have collected over the years. The older ones are transferware, probably from 1860 on. Since I have an interest in juvenile pottery, these attracted me because of the quaintness of the artwork on them. One has a rabbit with a rather outlandishly large body. It makes me think of the paintings we have seen of cattle, horses, pigs and other farm animals painted in the 1700s. They have a charm that today’s “Bunnykins” just don’t have. Another has a young girl shepherding a herd of cows, again, the clothing is 1800s, animal shapes ungainly, and the scene quite dated.

All nationalities have developed their own styles of design. The materials have been coconut shells, bark, wood, seashells and all sorts of metals, porcelain, pottery and glass.

Scandinavians have a wonderful history of making wooden containers. There were those for everyday use and fine artwork for the ceremonial cups. The Mexicans found the tin glaze brought to them by the Spanish most useful in finishing their clay objects. Each ethnic group has been able to leave an identifying trail for those of us studying the development of tableware.

A collection of cups could be narrowed by deciding to stay with English juvenile of the 18th century or of the 20th. It would b e interesting to collect pattern glass cups made in America. A collection of porcelain souvenir cups with the names of obscure towns would certainly be a conversation piece!

Late in the 1800s and early 1900s, there was an American fad to have souvenir cups with hometown names on them. These were usually ruby glass, pressed to clear, with the names in gold script. There seem to be many more around now as they are being made overseas for sale here. These importers are being clever by choosing the small towns of the United States, make them seem rarer…but they are quite new…so do look for wear marks on the bases and the style of writing.

Most of us have quite a collection of everyday mugs in our cupboards with manes, advertising or love messages. Maybe now is the time to take those old ones off shelves to use, to look at, to muse over and stop to think about the origin, the hands that once held it. That is the beauty of antiques. We can hold history in our hands.

Norma Crews is a native Texan, graduate of Texas Tech, former teacher and rancher, mother of three grown sons and six grandchildren, and raised in South Texas on a ranch as a member of two pioneer families.

Upon retiring from teaching and ranching, she and her husband James became pickers for large Texas shops, before branching into doing shows for a number of years in Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas. She currently resides in Neosho, MO.

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