Starbucks Monterey mug: Discovery Series
Monterey, California drawn as one coastal wrap: a sea otter, Point Pinos Lighthouse, a bridge like Bixby Bridge, jellyfish, jazz horns, a wharf on pilings, a Cannery Row-style crossover, a diver, a seafood plate and butterflies.
- Series
- Discovery Series
- Place
- Monterey, California, 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 rancher's telescope and the otters everyone thought were gone
On 19 March 1938, Howard Granville Sharpe was looking through a telescope at the sea below his ranch, thirteen miles south of Carmel, when he saw about fifty sea otters in the kelp [10]. They were supposed to be extinct. The fur trade had stripped the Pacific, and by 1911 only 13 small populations survived anywhere in the world [11]. Two days later he reported it to Hopkins Marine Station [10]. He was not the first to know. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, a few state biologists had kept quiet about a tiny colony near Bixby Cove, and California had made the otter a fully protected mammal in 1913 [11]. That June, Life magazine printed a photo of the raft near Bixby Bridge under the headline "The 'extinct' sea otter swims back to life" [11]. Those Big Sur animals were the last of their subspecies [11]. They spread north slowly, and sometime in the 1960s they reached the Hopkins refuge in Pacific Grove, on Monterey Bay [10]. The otter floating belly-up on the front of the Monterey mug (3) is drawn in water they took back.
The mug does not label its drawings, so connecting this one to the story is our reading.
What's on the mug
- 1MONTEREY
The word MONTEREY is printed in light blue capitals across a large dark green circle in the middle of the front. It is spelled with one R, the California city on Monterey Bay, not Monterrey in Mexico, which has its own Discovery Series mug.
- 2Arch bridge that looks like Bixby Bridge
A thin bridge with a single arch and vertical posts runs along a steep green and blue mountainside above a strip of surf, top left on the front. It looks like Bixby Bridge on the Big Sur coast south of Carmel, a concrete open-spandrel arch, but other bridges on that road share the same shape and the drawing does not show Bixby's large side pillars. The mug doesn't name it.[1]
- 3Sea otter
A sea otter floats on its back in a ribbon of water, with a pale blue head, a plum-coloured body with yellow and blue fur strokes, and a yellow-green object held on its chest. Sea otters live in Monterey Bay, and floating belly-up is how they rest and eat at the surface.[2]
- 4Trumpet and saxophone, possibly for the Monterey Jazz Festival
A yellow-green trumpet with purple sound lines and a plum and blue saxophone sit above the name, with musical notes around them. They may stand for the Monterey Jazz Festival, held in the city every year, though the mug prints no festival name or date.[3]
- 5Two jellyfish, perhaps for the Monterey Bay Aquarium
Two jellyfish with long trailing tentacles, drawn in pale blue, yellow-green and grey, float at the right edge of the front, beside the handle. They may point to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which is known for its jellyfish galleries; the drawing does not show the aquarium building or name a species.[4]
- 6Beach and seaside houses
A green headland with small houses, trees and a road slopes down to a yellow beach where tiny figures walk, above blue waves with white foam lines. The drawing gives no detail that ties it to one named beach.
- 7Three long two-storey buildings and a tree
Three long pale blue two-storey buildings with plum hipped roofs and rows of windows stand among shrubs, with a round yellow-green tree between them, below the otter. Nothing printed names them.
- 8Sailboat and small cabin boat
A tall sailboat with yellow-green and blue sails and a small motorboat with a blue cabin and a figure on deck sit at the left edge of the front. The same boats appear at the right edge of the Side photo.
- 9Building with a covered bridge, like a Cannery Row crossover Side view
Two square towers with plum pyramid roofs are joined by a covered bridge over a street, with a blue three-storey building at the left and people walking underneath; a family of three (two adults, a child) walks in the foreground. It resembles one of the crossovers on Cannery Row, the former cannery street in Monterey: bridges over the street that link the bay side to the inland side, left over from the conveyor belts that once carried cans. The drawing has no sign and could show another crossover there. The mug doesn't name it.[5][9]
- 10Scuba diver Side view
A diver in a green wetsuit with a green air tank, a mask and long fins swims to the right with bubbles rising. The fins reach the right edge of the Back photo.
- 11Plate of seafood with a crab and shrimp Side view
A round blue plate holds a plum crab, three shrimp, several pale shells and one yellow-green oyster, around a round item with a dark rim and a dotted yellow centre; a second yellow-green oyster lies just off the plate's right edge, against the sailboat's sail. The centre item is not clear enough to name.
- 12Wharf on pilings, which looks like Old Fisherman's Wharf Side view
A long row of low green, yellow and blue buildings with plum roofs stands on a pier of thin plum pilings over pale blue water, with a small light tower at the left end. It looks like Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey, a historic wharf now lined with restaurants and shops, though the city also has a second, commercial wharf. The mug doesn't name it.[6]
- 13Rocky headland with trees and a coffee cup Back view
A green headland edged with plum rock wraps around a blue inlet, with blue-green trees, small plum rocks offshore and a white cup with a round green mark standing among yellow-green trees at the top. The cup may be a nod to Starbucks; the shore itself is not drawn in enough detail to name. Its left end also shows at the left edge of the Side photo.
- 14Two butterflies, possibly for Pacific Grove's monarchs Back view
Two butterflies with yellow-green wings, blue dotted edges and dark veins fly near the handle. The dotted wing edges and vein pattern are like a monarch's, which may refer to the Monarch Grove Sanctuary in Pacific Grove next to Monterey. The colour does not settle it either way, because the whole mug is printed in the same few colours, and no sign names the species.[7]
- 15Point Pinos Lighthouse Back view
A pale blue clapboard house with a blue roof, two dormers and two chimneys (one at the left end, one behind the right dormer) has a round yellow-green tower with a railed balcony and lantern rising from the middle of the roof, with a low fence running out to each side. That tower-in-the-roof plan matches Point Pinos Lighthouse in Pacific Grove, on Monterey Bay. A small cove with green hills and a rock sits behind it.[8]
- 16STARBUCKS Back view
STARBUCKS is printed vertically in small black capitals beside the handle, with a registered mark.
The photos do not show the inside or the bottom of the mug. The handle is on the right in the Front photo and on the left in the Back photo, and the Side photo shows the part opposite the handle; the edges of the three photos overlap (the sailboat, the headland and the diver's fins appear in two views), so the wrap is covered from one side of the handle to the other, but the narrow strip right beside the handle is seen only at a steep angle.
Collector notes
- This is Monterey in California (one R), not Monterrey in Mexico: the catalog lists separate discovery-series-monterrey, been-there-monterrey, icon-monterrey and icon-monterrey-2 mugs, so check the spelling on the front before buying.
- The catalog also lists a Been There Series Monterey mug (been-there-monterey). This Discovery Series mug has MONTEREY in blue capitals over a large dark green circle on the front; we have not compared the two designs side by side.
- Several scenes here (the arch bridge, the wharf, the covered crossover, the butterflies) are drawn without signs or labels, so their names on this page are hedged; only the sea otter and the Point Pinos Lighthouse are matched closely enough to name outright. The photos do not show the inside or the bottom of the mug.
Before you buy
Check the spelling before you buy: this is Monterey, California, with one R, and the catalog lists separate Discovery, Been There and Icon mugs for Monterrey in Mexico. A Been There Series Monterey mug also exists; we have not compared the two designs side by side. The photos do not show the inside or the bottom of this one.
Other Monterey mugs
About the Discovery Series
Sources
- Bixby Creek Bridge (Wikipedia)
- Sea otter (Wikipedia)
- Monterey Jazz Festival (Wikipedia)
- Monterey Bay Aquarium (Wikipedia)
- Cannery Row (Wikipedia)
- Fisherman's Wharf (Monterey, California) (Wikipedia)
- Pacific Grove, California (Wikipedia)
- Point Pinos Lighthouse (Wikipedia)
- The Canneries (Cannery Row Company)
- Marine mammals: Sea otters (Stanford University, Hopkins Marine Station)
- On Second Chances: The Southern Sea Otter's Return to Ecological Relevance (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)
