In comments to my previous post I was asked to post photos of all my Moomin mugs. As my collection is no larger than nine, I did not find the request too overwhelming...
I took some photos this morning while there was good daylight in the kitchen.
The texts I got from Arabia's website (i.e. the manufacturer); see link at the bottom.
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| Muddler & Little My |
"Muddler is a restless and absent-minded collector who lives in a coffee tin. He keeps all the buttons that he finds, but is hopelessly careless with his collection. He forgets things and loses stuff almost all the time."
"Little My is one of Mymble's children. She is the smallest and most energetic. Little My always decides herself what she will and won't do. She isn't bothered by a mess, and she is so small that she fits into a pitcher or kitchen drawer between the whisks and spoons."
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| Snufkin & Moominmama |
"Snufkin is a gentle vagabond who plays his mouth organ and loves to fish. Moomintroll is his best friend and Little My is his stepsister. Snufkin wears a green hat and wanders the countryside wherever his fancy takes him."
"Moominmamma is a gentle mother who cares for others. She never reveals the secrets that she has been told. She makes sure that the Moominhouse is safe and feels loving to both her family and to visitors."
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| The Ancestor |
"The fascinating, mystical Ancestor is small and hairy. He moves only at night time, and doesn't speak at all. He lives in the Moominhouse salon, behind the oven. He keeps on decorating the house by turning paintings upside down."
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| "Adventure Move" (The Comet) + "Spring Winter" |
Adventure Move (Snorkmaiden, Little My, Mymble (My's sister), Moomin and others )
"The Moomins run away from a comet and bring only the absolute essentials along with them. The comet floats in the air and gets bigger every day, and looks like it will hit the ground very soon."
Spring winter (Snufkin, Moomin, Little My)
(My comment: Moomin trolls usually hibernate in winter - while Snufkin prefers to go south for the winter, and comes back in spring. One winter, Moomin wakes up early, while there is still snow on the ground. Little My is awake too; and a squirrel plays a role in the story.)
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| Moomin Valley |
Moominvalley
(Summer. Moominpappa in the black hat + several other characters.)
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| Moominhouse |
Moominhouse
"Moominpappa is very proud of the Moominhouse, which he built himself.
Guests are always welcome and the doors are always open, even at
night-time. Moominpappa, Moominmamma and Moomintroll live in the house
and are its permanent residents. Others come and go as they please."
You can find all Moomin mugs here:
https://arabia.fi/eng/products/moomin-mug-listing
"Arabia’s Moomins are turned from stories to ceramic illustrations by designer Tove Slotte. She has been drawing Moomins onto Arabia items since the beginning of the 1990s. The designer draws inspiration from Tove Jansson’s original illustrations."
My own "collection" started with the Muddler mug, which was a present from my friend G (who recently passed away) - either for Christmas or some birthday. Not sure what year. I thought the Muddler looked a bit lonely in my cupboard, so I got him Little My as companion, and I think I also bought the Moomin House around the same time. Then other friends gave me the Snufkin and Moominmamma mugs, I think for my 60th birthday. And the other four I've bought myself on different occasions after that.
The Moomin House has become my Water Mug, which means it's always on my kitchen countertop or draining board, never in the cupboard. The others I use for tea and I tend to vary which mugs I use the most from season to season. :) (I drink tea 3-4 times/day)
19 comments:
I have never heard of the stories of Moomin and went out after viewing your mugs to find out what they are. found all the stories and they are really old ones. My favoirte mug today is the Ancestor. you know I love black with pops of color.. they are all really cute and are perfect for decorating when not drinking from them..
this is where I found the history of moomins https://www.moomin.com/en/history/
Your Moomin mugs are so cute and how nice you have a good sized collection of them. At my age I have decided to use all my favorite things, like you are doing with your water mug and for tea throughout the day.
How interesting, it is a whole other world. I had no idea they have such distinct personalities! I think my favorite is spring/winter. thanks for posting them!
I think I want to re-read one or two Moomin books; seems I have forgotten quite a few things about the Moomins, such as Little My having a sister.
The book I remember best from my childhood is Moominpappa at Sea. I was fascinated by the Groke, who went by the name of Morra in the German translation I read back then (closer to her original name, Mårran).
I am a little too old to have read the Moomin books, not having children or grandchildren, but I really love those mugs. My favourite I think is the Moominhouse.
What a fabulous collection! They are so colourful, I love the designs and the story connected to each mug. In all my years visiting or staying in Sweden, I don't think I've ever been aware of the mugs - not even in the ceramics shops I used to love to visit.
I still have some Arabia pottery coffee cups bought sometime in the 70's, on one of my shopping days out in Karlstad. Mostly I take coffee in a mug but I still like to use the cups occasionally - they bring back happy memories.
My comment seems to have disappeared!
JayCee, I really don't understand why Blogger sometimes sorts perfectly harmless comments as spam, but lets a lot more suspicious ones through... I found it, and it should now be visible.
Gosh. A whole world I knew almost nothing about. I say almost nothing because I did actually know that there was something called a Moomin even if I had no idea what it is.
Thanks Sandra. A good link for those who need an introduction. Myself, I've known the Moomins "all my life"... In my childhood/youth, from a children's picture book or two borrowed from the library, plus the comic strips were published daily in our daily newspaper - and later also collected in albums. Most of the novels I didn't read until I was a bit older, I think.
Terra, I too see no point in not using the things one likes. These mugs have become popular as collector's items though, and some rare ones may be worth a fortune - but then they should not have been used at all, and even still have the original price tag on (mentioned only the other week in some antiques show on Swedish television). I bought mine for fun and for everyday though :)
You're welcome, Ginny. The Moomin world really IS a whole other world to explore - but when one does, one will find that their world is perhaps not all that different from our own after all...
Meike, in my childhood and youth I mostly read the comic strips. With perhaps one or two exceptions I don't think I read the novels until I was an adult. My own copies of them were bought in the 1980s to early 90s.
JayCee, one is never too old for the Moomin books! :-)
Carol, it wasn't until the early 1990s that Arabia started producing the Moomin mugs, and I'm not sure I came across them myself until well into the 2000s. I really had enough mugs and cups without them, but once my friend gave me the first one of these, I got hooked on getting a few more... Which is probably one answer to why they've become so popular: They broke with the traditional pattern of buying a dozen (or half a dozen) looking exactly the same... :)
New worlds do sometimes pop up when we least expect them, Graham! ;-) I'm thinking you might like the book Meike mentioned in her comment - Moominpappa at Sea... (He takes off with his family to become a lighthouse keeper on a small island...) ;-)
They are all very cute, you've got quite a collection but I do hope you use them for a good cup of coffee.
I don't drink coffee, Amy - only tea!
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