Squadron mugs - The good ones!
 

Does anybody know the address of the maker of the good, thick sqn mugs? Not the ones from Lincoln but the German ones that were pretty bulllet proof. My first sqn was Bruggen and I treasured the quality of the mug until some 'person' nicked it!

Was the name Schonwald or something like that?

I remember sending quite a few payments to this company:

Phil Jost - Bacharach - Souveniers

Sqn Mugs
 

Have just checked the base of my first tour mug (35 years old, now used for toothbrushes) and my third tour mug. Second tour was a different story!

2 manufacturers were:

Bauscher Weiden, Bavaria

Schoenwald

Both still exist, Google is your friend
:)

Phil Jost was the guy I used a couple of years ago. Very good and spoke English. He also has the art work for most Sqn crests already.

Regards

Thanks guys, I'll do some Googling!

Yup, my 56 Sqn mug from Phil.Jost is a treasured item! Bauscher of Weiden, Bavaria, supplied the high quality porcelain mugs and Phil.Jost did the painting. Superb quality and a cold war icon! But became rather expensive, so I was tasked with sourcing the usual cheap UK mugs for everyday use:


Drill 56(F) mug on left; cere' Jost mug on right.

Try Phil Jost - Bacharach - Souveniers or ring +49 6743 1224

Phil. Jost is at Bacharach/Rhein - one of the most attractive Rhineland towns in Germany.

How much better does the RH one look? Thanks Beags.

I have one similar to the right one above, and "Schonwald" is written in tiny letters on its base. Drop it on your foot and risk a broken toe! They are the mug version of a Buccaneer or Hind helicopter.

Yep, my XV Sqn one has Bauscher Weiden, Bavaria, on the bottom, and am having a coffee out of it right now. Unfortunately have lost my 16 Sqn one.

Exact same as Beags' right mug, but unfortunately over the past 30 years the gold ring around the lip, my name, and the gold in the badge have almost disappeared. Retirement doesn't help, it gets zapped in the dishwasher every day - that never happened on the squadron!!

Tiger mate,

Considering your name and the mugs come from Germany, rather than a Hind or Bucc perhaps the mug equivalent of a King Tiger. A bit un PC but hey.

Regards

That was always the problem - and the replacement cost was rather too high for the average 'price sensitive' squadron shag, hence the cheap 'n cheerful everyday mug which was about ¼ the price of a 'proper' Jost mug.

An efficient design, the Jost mug, as it provides the maximum volume for the minimum mass of porcelain - those who suffer from insomnia can brush up their differential calculus to prove it, if they wish. But a side effect is that the mug design is prone to spillage as the natural wavelength of the mug's contents is readily excited by walking across the crewroom - cue many damp patches (on the floor...:ooh:) and scalded wrists. Not a problem with the cheapo mug though!

Incidentally, NEVER put a Jost mug in a microwave - the gold will disappear in a cloud of smoke.

I wonder whatever happened to the coffee machine we were persuaded to hire when I was on 56? We were told that the free coffee which came with the monthly hire would easily last the month as it would do nnn cups...

Except that 'cups' to the supplier meant twee little after-dinner demi-tasse thimbles, rather than traditional aircrew Jost buckets. So come the first week of hire and we'd used an entire month's worth of coffee - and the machine didn't seem to like the NAFFI stuff... Neither did we!

My XV one has Shoenwald on the bottom - still on my desk/daily use now 18 yrs on!

Obtaining the cheapo mugs was a breeze - and for some reason known only to helpful stackers, the boxes arrived through the supply system thanks to mates of mates....

A chap of slightly small stature on 56 had ordered a mug with a name on it, as you do. A joker changed his request to read 'Vermin Horrid', after the little bloke in Python's Time Bandits. He took it in good spirit, but after a while the joke began to wear off. So the next time we placed some orders, he asked for one with the correct name. "No *****ng 'Vermin' this time, OK?", he anounced to the assembled throng.

What a mistakea to makea!

The box arrived, but before we took it to the crewroom, we quietly found the new mug, pinched his old one and polished it until it gleamed like new, then put it in the box and took it to the crewroom.

Was he impressed to find 'another' Vermin? Err, not really...:\ We let him get really rather pi$$ed off - then gave him his new mug to put him out of his misery. Collapse of stout party, as they say!

A typically innocent and, yes, childish jape of the type which brightened things up in crewooms back then...;)

Here at the Southern tip of Africa, today I can have any mug that I supply, decorated with any image that I supply in JPG format.

I used the retailer to have a pattern sandblasted onto a glass beer mug and only perused at the tea/coffee mug samples while I was waiting.

The porcelain tea/coffee mugs seemed to be marketed mainly to the proud new parent market, but I was informed that they could print anything and the finish was 'dishwasher proof'.

This service was available for 30 rand, £2-72 at today's exchange rate.

If such a service is available in this forgotten corner of the former Empire, similar service must be available in civilized places.

Just emailed Stephan Jost. He's doing a run of mugs this month. All he needed was a link to the crest required. Sweet!!

Jost mugs are the way ahead - just don't drop your Flt Cdr's on a bit of concrete! I think this why we have the word "smithereens" and I was a poor Fg Off for yet another month!

By the way, drinking from a Flt Cdr's mug is also ill-advised having seen what a well-hung Ulsterman did to one in the crew room following a disagreement with the very same Flt Cdr - very unhygenic! :yuk:

LJ

I'm used to working with crewmen; never leave anything lying around, especially your fg helmet with a boom mike!

It looked like a thimble on a baby's arm!

BBad!

Nope, mate, it didn't! Like most aircrew, one's mug was lucky to get a swill out once a week and, for some, have the mould scraped off the top of the residual coffee when you got back from leave!

Great days!

Foldie:cool: