What is a Fire-King mug?

A Fire-King mug is a milk glass, jadeite, azurite (turquoise), or vitrock coffee mug or sometimes cup, which was made by the Anchor Hocking Glass Corporation  (Anchor Hocking) between about 1940 through about 1979.  There are too many 1979 and 1980 event or commemorative decorated mugs to suggest that 1976 was the cut-off date for the use of the embossed Fire-King script logo on the bottom as some suggest.  Fire-King mugs take on different styles, from including something akin to a goblet, to a hearty short cup — but never a dainty teacup.  Generally its height will be more than it’s width.  Also, except for certain philbe shaped mugs, some placesetter cups, some footed mugs, the early vitrock mugs and the Grog mug, they will almost always be marked with the words Fire-King on the bottom.  Other D-handle Fire-King mugs without the script Fire-King do exist but they are extraordinarily rare.

The obvious answer is any mug not made by the Anchor Hocking Company.  There were several companies producing similar mugs, such as Federal, Glasbake, Hazel Atlas, Libbey, Galaxy, and the Mexican company — Termocrisa, which made some of the better copies of both the shapes and the pattern themes.  The less obvious answer is that any Anchor Hocking mug made after the company ended the Fire-King embossing on the bottom is not a Fire-King mug.  These include the anchor symbol inside a rounded cornered rectangle, are made after about 1979ish and do not have the words Fire-King on bottom.  These are simply Anchor Hocking mugs, though many are seeing increased collector interest.

The importance of learning the markings should be clear, but since almost all Fire-King mugs are marked, but still it is imperative that the collector learn the specific shapes of these mugs in order to distinguish from a distance from other makers’ mugs., especially since some of these mugs have brought record prices in 2004.

I hope this web site is helpful to that end.

Hopefully you’ll find additional reference sources, photographs, places to buy and sell them and general collecting tips to be useful in your quest to build a collection or research a particular mug.  If you need an informal appraisal, try Ebay first.  If after checking there, you still need help, please feel free to drop me an email.