Help me find this Mug!

January 18, 2014 12:15 PM

I saw this mug in the conference room at work- it must be a coworkers. I would love to get one like it. It looks to be Zuni or Hopi Native American bears. Any ideas? thanks!
posted by TRUELOTUS to Food & Drink (12 answers total)

I think you are right about the bear imagery. The only other thing I can add is that the glaze is a rutile glaze -- which might help in keyword searching.
posted by pantarei70 at 12:52 PM on January 18, 2014

I'd guess those are polar bears with an aurora coming up behind the mountains, suggesting maybe an Alaskan or Canadian provenance (though of course anyone can use the motif, if that's even what it is).

Can you check the conference room calendar to see who organized a meeting there around the time you saw it?
posted by Monsieur Caution at 1:06 PM on January 18, 2014 [4 favorites]

Maybe you work at the Pentagon or something and this isn't feasible, but could you just, y'know, ask around at work?
posted by box at 1:09 PM on January 18, 2014 [2 favorites]

It looks a whole lot like the (nice!) mugs for sale at the local Renaissance Festival, especially the glaze at the top. At least at ours, which has all kinds of non-Renaissance items. I wouldn't limit the search to Zuni or Hopi. I would also look at generic Native American-ish. (That doesn't take away from its niceness or charm -- I have dozens from Ren Festivals with a similar look.) If you see this mug again, take a picture of the bottom.
posted by Houstonian at 1:25 PM on January 18, 2014

Response by poster: I no longer work there!
posted by TRUELOTUS at 1:40 PM on January 18, 2014

Response by poster: that's the problem :(
posted by TRUELOTUS at 1:40 PM on January 18, 2014

You should consider finding a local potter to reproduce it. It's very cool, I can understand why you want to find one for yourself!!
posted by lakersfan1222 at 2:28 PM on January 18, 2014

Response by poster: hahah! thanks! I know- I was kinda wondering if an etsy person could do it. Great idea. thank you!!
posted by TRUELOTUS at 2:37 PM on January 18, 2014

Not exactly what you're looking for, but something like this?
posted by greta_01 at 3:31 PM on January 18, 2014

Kinda close at Polar Bears Int'l.
posted by Ideefixe at 4:28 PM on January 18, 2014

The design of the bear on "your" mug looks like a Zuni bear fetish design or Native American rock art bear or "spirit bear" design, yes.

I would check out mugs on etsy and see if you like someone's work and then ask them to do a custom mug based on your photo. There are a few people doing bears on mugs on etsy now who could probably handle it. One example of someone who could probably do it.
posted by gudrun at 5:04 PM on January 18, 2014

Just saw your other deleted post, and was about to post this on it. Your mug reminds me of some of the offerings here, though none are an exact match: Porterhouse mugs.
posted by barnone at 11:57 AM on September 30, 2014