Behold the mustache cup: The special tea cup used by the Victorian men to protect their mustache from getting dunked into the tea

Source: http://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/0...e=facebook.com



Although the term “Moustache Cup” may sound like some product on the market specially developed for the modern day hipster, the truth is that this “facial hair protective mug” was widely used by Victorian gentlemen.

Facial hair was widely popular throughout the Victorian era, mustaches especially.

Victorian gentlemen often applied wax to the mustache to keep it firm. However, when drinking hot liquids, the steam from the drink would melt the wax, which would eventually end up in the cup. Hot liquids like tea or coffee would additionally stain their precious mustaches.


In the mid-18th century, tea still had exotic connotations: salt-glazed stoneware teapot, Staffordshire, ca.1750 (Victoria and Albert Museum)

Something had to be done, so in 1860, Englishman Harvey Adams came up with a brilliant invention that would allow the mustache-wearing gentlemen to both enjoy their hot tea or coffee and keep their mustaches neat at the same time. The mustache cup was not an ordinary cup, as it had a ledge, better known as a mustache guard, across the cup meant to protect the mustache from being “drowned” in the hot drink.


A mustache cup in the Norsk Folkemuseum, Oslo

It didn’t take long for mustache cup to spread all over Europe, and soon after Harvey Adams gave the solution for the Victorian gentlemen, every potter was making mustache cups.


Mustache cup , Tirschenreuth 1880m

Each potter created his own version of this masculine tableware, and the news of the mustache saving cup soon spread to America.

The mustaches progressively began to go out of fashion in the 1920s and 1930s, and that meant the demise of the mustache cup. Nowadays, surviving examples of Victorian male elegance are coveted and collected by a growing number of enthusiasts.