Starbucks Detroit mug: Discovery Series
DETROIT over a green circle, with a saxophonist and a seated guitarist, a music stand, a night skyline with a speeding car, a car engine, a square pepperoni pizza in the Detroit style, and what looks like the Fox Theatre's lit tower and marquee.
- Series
- Discovery Series
- Place
- Detroit, Michigan, USA
- Type
- Mug
- Released
- Not confirmed
- Capacity
- 14 fl ozStarbucks's Discovery Series launch story calls it the 14-ounce ceramic mug
- SKU
- Not confirmed
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The summer Detroit's free jazz festival almost ended
Every Labor Day weekend, a free jazz festival fills Hart Plaza and Campus Martius Park in downtown Detroit [1]. In February 2005 it nearly stopped. Ford, its title sponsor for a decade, announced it was leaving [2]. The festival had begun in 1980 as the Montreux-Detroit Jazz Festival, an idea from the Detroit Renaissance group to bring visitors into the city [1]. Now it needed a backer, fast. Gretchen Valade, the Carhartt heiress who owned Mack Avenue Records, gave $250,000 [3], and she went on to set up a foundation to keep the festival free, refusing to put her own name on it [4]. Today it survives on donations; its artistic director says it must raise nearly $5 million a year [5]. The saxophonist on the Detroit mug (2) could be on that stage.
The mug does not label its drawings, so connecting this one to the story is our reading.
What's on the mug
- 1Lettering
DETROIT is printed in red capitals across a dark green circle in the middle of the design.
- 2Saxophonist
A tall musician in a pale blue pinstriped jacket, dark red trousers and a checked hat plays a lilac saxophone at the left of the lettering. Coloured music notes float above his hat towards the music stand.
- 3Seated guitarist
Behind the saxophonist, a musician in a pale hat and dark red suit sits on a striped stool and holds a guitar across his body; the tuning pegs show at the end of the neck. The drawing does not make clear whether it is a guitar or a bass guitar.
- 4Music stand
A red music stand holds an open score above the lettering, with a conductor's baton laid across it. A treble clef and coloured notes float around it.
- 5City skyline at night
Blue, dark red and pale blue tower blocks with lit windows sit below the lettering, under a crescent moon, small stars and a cloud. The blocks are generic and do not match one particular Detroit building.
- 6Car engine
A cluster of blue, lilac and purple machine parts at the right of the circle looks like a car engine, with a round fan or pulley on the front and pipes on top. Detroit's best-known nickname, the Motor City, comes from its role at the centre of the American car industry. The mug doesn't name it.[9]
- 7Fox Theatre
A tall, slender blue tower with rows of lights and a pointed top rises over a building with a red front and a bulb-lined marquee, flanked by two red winged figures. This fits the Fox Theatre on Woodward Avenue: a stacked FOX sign stood on top of its marquee between 14-foot griffins, and its roof carries a multistory tower sign topped by a star. The drawing is too small to show the FOX letters or the star. The mug doesn't name it.[7][6]
- 8Detroit-style pizza
A square, lilac-coloured pizza is covered in round red pepperoni slices, with dark red stripes of sauce across the top and one square piece pulled away from the corner. A squared-off pan pizza with sauce in stripes is the Detroit style. The mug doesn't name it.[8]
- 9Car on a curving street
In front of the skyline, a blue and red car surrounded by dark red shapes (wheels or puffs of smoke) speeds along a lilac curving street, with white speed lines behind it. It may be a race car, but the drawing does not show which event or make.
- 10Tilted bottle
At the far left edge, a tilted teal bottle with a dark red label sprays bubbles and dark drops. The label is cut off by the curve of the mug, so the drink cannot be identified.
The photo shows one side of the mug. The back and the area behind the handle are out of view.
Collector notes
- The photo shows the mug on its dark green gift box, printed STARBUCKS DISCOVERY SERIES in light capitals.
- The two musicians fill the left of the design and the car engine sits at the right, near the handle, so a photo from the left misses the engine.
Before you buy
Our photo shows the mug on a dark green gift box printed STARBUCKS DISCOVERY SERIES. The car engine sits at the right, so a photo taken from the left misses it. Detroit also has Been There, Icon and You Are Here mugs, which look different.
Other Detroit mugs
About the Discovery Series
Sources
- Detroit International Jazz Festival (Detroit Historical Society)
- Ford ends support of Detroit Jazz Festival (Playbill)
- The heiress (Model D)
- Community remembers many contributions of Gretchen Valade (C&G News)
- Heading to the Detroit Jazz Festival (BridgeDetroit)
- Fox Theatre (Historic Detroit)
- TBT: Fox Theatre's 1985 marquee (FOX 2 Detroit)
- Detroit-style pizza origins (CBS Detroit)
- Nicknames of Detroit (Wikipedia)
