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Tim takes you on a personally conducted tour of more amazing mugs and drinking vessels from his toy collection, and also - at the end - a few unusual jugs as well.
First up is a small shot glass that is made completely from ice! It has a plastic sleeve, which stops your fingers getting frozen when you hold it (and presumably stops it melting too fast!) Of course, the shot glass keeps your drink extremely cold, since it is made from ice. Tim then demonstrates a glass that sits on top of a small model car. Fill it up, and send it across the table to the person that wants it. A drink on wheels. Next is a shiny metal cup that sits on a saucer which has some distorted writing on it. You can kind of see that the word is coffee, but when you place the cup on the saucer and look at the words as they are reflected in the cup, you see the word coffee appearing perfectly. This is an example of circular anamorphism.
The next mug has a roulette wheel incorporated in the base; an unusual drinking game maybe? Then Tim shows a French Christmas mug, called Noel Train, that has a small train built into a tunnel that goes right through the mug! We than move to Germany, and a mug that sits on top of a tube, which lifts it above the table quite a way. We talk about High Tea in England, which involves tea, sandwiches and cakes, and which can be quite elaborate; this mug says Hoch die Tasse on the side, but we think in this case the meaning is more like 'bottoms up'. Then Tim demonstrates a teapot which appears to be sitting on some sort of a base. When you lift the teapot up, the base turns out to be a tea cup, all ready for you to pour a nice cuppa! With the teapot sitting on top, it helps keep the cup warm. I have heard of 'warming the pot' when you make a pot of tea. But here you are warming the cup...
Then we see a glass tankard, a bit like a German beer stein' however this mug has more to it than first appears; It is actually a Klein bottle, or as Tim puts it, a Klein Stein! Then Tim demonstrates a mug that has three partial metal strips that run around the mug. Each metal band has a gap, and by rotating the bands, you reveal what you want to be put inside the mug; so, the top band can be twisted to reveal words like tea, coffee, latte, herb tea, hot chocolate etc; the next band down can be adjusted so that you see words like plain, lemon, cream, etc. so that defines what kind of milk or cream you want in your tea or coffee. And the lowest band can be adjusted to show words like sweetener, sugar, etc. So you can dial up your choice of beverage.
Tim then shows us a ceramic bird that is attached to the top edge of a ceramic cup. The bird is a small whistle, which Tim proves by blowing through it! However, just below the bird, on the inside of the mug, there is a small hole. If you fill the mug with a liquid so that the liquid comes up above the hole, then when you blow the bird whistle, you still get a whistle, but now it is more of a liquid warbling sound. Tim has many bird warblers in his collection, but he is especially fond of items that combine two ideas, a warbling bird whistle and a drinking vessel in this case.
We then see a smallish glass vessel, which has a slightly confusing structure inside. However when Tim pours in a red liquid (is that wine Tim?) we see what looks like a bunch of grapes! This 'grape glass' has a smooth outside, but there is a second, interior wall to the glass, and when you fill it with liquid, the shape of the inner wall of the glass becomes apparent. Cheers!
Tim's next mug looks like a fairly standard white china mug, except that it also has a small lip at one side, so it is a mug and also a jug. Another dual function toy! Then Tim demonstrates a milk jug in the shape of a cow, just to remind you where the milk comes from maybe? And finally, we see a nice glass jug that clearly has an inner wall to it. Although it may not be apparent what it does, as soon as you pour milk into it, you can see that the inner wall is made in the shape of a cow's udder.
To conclude, Tim goes back to his teapot that sits on its own mug, pours out a cup of tea, adds some milk and sips his tea!!
1 окт 2024
