Mug Shot — «1978 Original Cigar Band Mermaid Logo, version 2»

Country: USA Edition: Limited Edition Belongs to: 7 users (0 trading, 7 seeking)

Version 1 on the left...version 2 on the right

The following information is from two different forum contributors of a website www.starbucksmelody.com responding to a question regarding this and other early vintage Starbucks mugs. See also FO mugs 9146 and 10614.

Gay N

I can help with some of the old logo mug info. I was buying merchandise in the late 70’s for about a decade and that white logo mug is familiar. First, just to “ground” folks, when I started, Starbucks had 3 stores and was opening a whopping 1/annually. We wanted to offer logo mugs but didnt exactly have “volume” to get anyone to make them for us. A big order might be 100-and with 3 or 4 stores, you can imagine that would last a while. To offer merchandise like a logo mug,I purchased white porcelain mugs (and there’s a whole story about porcelain and Pike Place) and sent them to a screening house in Tukwila that screened a decal of the logo on each mug individually by hand. Hence, no manufacturer marking besides sometimes the mug manufacturer. I tended to use order diner-style mugs or straight-sided contemporary mugs, like the one shown. The photo looks like one I have. It was timeconsuming but created something “ours”.

In the 80’s (and probably after my time…) we had maybe doubled to 6 stores, and had enough volume to have manufacturers customize mugs for us and Hartstone, along with Rosanna Imports among others including craftspeople at the Pike Place Market, were some of the companies we used. It made my life easier to order from one vendor and continued to create a product that our customers wouldnt see at the Bon or some other larger retailer.

Jack Madison

This mug IS from 1978. This was the first mass produced mug from a company named “Brothers Ceramics” which was located next to the stadium in an old, two story brick building. There was a bar in the front of it called “Micks” and in the back and second floor was the ceramics ‘factory.’
Bartholomew “Bart” was the brother of Michael “Mick” who made the mugs for the Seattle Seahawks.
The bottom is blank because it was up to Starbucks to place a stamp on the bottom…which they chose not to as back then it wasn’t something anyone really did. Especially printed work. Usually when you find something before 1980 (on anything ceramic) it is rare to find something printed….usually it’s stamped during fabrication. Gigantic companies would sometimes print on the bottom but usually only their name and the city/state where it was created.
I worked for Starbucks from 1983 to 1998 and have been a collector of theirs since 1977. I worked at Pike Place as a 16 yr old and eventually ended up in their marketing department. My father owned an advertising firm from 1965 to 1997 and did Starbucks first campaign. He worked with them until (ironically) 1978. I have all sorts of their stuff from the 70’s. Posters, mugs, shots of me as a kid playing in their offices.
Anything you need to know about Starbucks from 1971 until 2000, I know. After 2000 they changed how they did everything from their logo to marketing, business relations….so on and such and I lost interest as all they became is just another plastic company floating in the cesspool of money and indifference.

  USA, 203 Logo, Original cigar band, Cigar Band, Vintage, 1978, siren

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