Label Love: Otagiri

Last month I went to an estate sale where I picked up a fantastic set of four stoneware "tankards" with a mushroom motif. I know they're tankards cause they were never used and still had little slips of paper with recipes for hot toddy drinks in said "tankards". Basically they are modern day sized coffee cups which is just totally amazing because whenever I purchase vintage drinking cups or mugs they are always so small. Like those tiny little juice shot glasses. Who's thirst did those quench? I'm sure there's an argument here for the size of Americans nowadays but I'll just leave it at the fact that I'm glad I have these totally awesome coffee
mugstankards to call my own now.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Otagiri Mushroom Tankard Mugs[/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="375"] Single tankard[/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Otagiri Original Japan - Hand Crafted gold foil label[/caption]

I'm a greedy little vintage hoarder so naturally I wanted more than a set of 4. I have visions of 8. I was willing to settle on 6. So I took my search to the internet. After all my searching I was only able to find one twin, more fraternal than identical, this Etsy listing is for the smaller mug counterpart of my design. I've been unable to find the official pattern name of my mushroom set, so it get called... Mushrooms.

I was able to gather a bit of history on the brand which was sold to Enseco (those Precious Moments folks) in 1994 and discontinued. The Otagiri Mercantile Company or Otagiri Manufacturing Company (OMC) were a Japanese wholesaler started in the 1960's that made ceramics and based their US headquarters in San Francisco. They specialized in Polynesian and Tiki styles which continue to be their most collected. One of my favorite blogs, Mid2Mod, has a great post about Otagiri.

In my vast search I came across a few pieces of Otagiri that I really liked. I'm drawn to their stoneware, but they do have a lot of those themed 80's coffee mugs and tiki bar kitsch in their repertoire. I sense a new obsession on the horizon...

I don't really have a need for a formal style tea set, but I like the look of it just displayed on a sideboard.

[caption id="attachment_1626" align="aligncenter" width="440"] 1970's tea set $40.00 by daisychainvintage[/caption]

I'd love to find a set of these owl mugs, on the thrifting "dream find" list they go.

[caption id="attachment_1628" align="aligncenter" width="440"] Vintage Otagiri Owl Coffee Mug $14.00 by AnUnexpectedJourney[/caption]