Hidden animal teacups: beasties that emerge from the depths of your milky tea

Ange-line Tetrault made a series of "hidden animal" teacups with little ceramic beasties inside that are slowly revealed as you sip through your (opaque) beverage of choice.

Whimsical Hidden Animal Teacups (via Neatorama)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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Loren Perelman

I totally remember that type of cup from my childhood–awesome! I’ll have to pick up a couple for my kids.
pipenta

Or you can choose a clear beverage, and watch the beasts glare at you from below the surface; the doomed ghosts of drowned animals, cursed to never more breathe the sweet dry air!

Oh, at least until you finish your apple juice…
- pipenta
  
  Also, there’s this, not teacups, but mugs:
  
  http://www.animugs.net/
  
  And that site is a hoot because of the inventory taxonomy in evidence. Not simply that she (gotta be a chick) has so many kinds of beasties and THINGS in the mugs, but she has them sorted out by category and cross-reference up the wazoo. So I am surprised to learn that a sailboat is a sort of marine life. But NO, WAIT, I see I am wrong, there is an even littler dog sailing that little boat and I have to admit, that is a life and therefore closer to marine life than a sailboat alone. And lo and behold I check, and find the item also listed under DOGS. At the very least. May be in other categories but I haven’t the stamina to check them. But bravo, say I, to the animugs people. No one can say you’re not TRYING!
  
  And yeah, the mugs are cute as hell.
- http://noctilucent-studios.blogspot.com/ Noctilucent Studios
  
  I’ll have what your having!!
- Matt Holden
  
  I need to quit speed reading. That totally looked like “bear cleavage” to me.
Snig

They’re cute, but I’m kind of leery of startling folks holding hot beverages. Probably why she didn’t include the facehugger or Chthulu models.
- pipenta
  
  I saw a line of these once that also included insect figures. And I thought, jeez, gah! I don’t want to find a fly or a spider or a maggot at the bottom of my mug!
  
  and I’m an entomologist!
  
  So the target market was, I suspect, nine year old kids, who delight in such gross outs!
  - princessalex
    
    Then, you should appreciate the previous xkcd comic even more than I did: http://xkcd.com/1012/
    
    :-)
  - Guest
    
    Those kids also probably delight in your company, bug man. :)
    - Guest
      
      or woman.
      - pipenta
        
        Woman actually.
        
        Kids delight. Adults often run screaming. You learn to self censor. At a crowded table on New Year’s I had to answer to “Pip, you’ve been very quiet tonight. What’s up with you, what are you interested in these days?”.
        
        And I took a moment, then replied:
        
        “I’m an entomologist Paul. I find if I get going about the stuff that really excites me, then at parties like this, folks squeeze themselves back against the wall and sidle away from me.”
        
        Then some damn fool brought up Candiru, only they didn’t know the name or the actual details and like an IDIOT, I had to clarify. I clarified all over the place. So much for my showing common sense. You can imagine…
      - Guest
        
        I -can- imagine, and with great delight!
  - http://www.lightning-rose.com/ LightningRose
    
    Odd you should say that.
    
    I was looking for the right place to comment that my 9 year old self had a ceramic mug with a green frog on the bottom. :)
- http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby
  
  I found one once in a Charity shop with a penis in the bottom of it.
  
  Still kicking myself for not buying it.
  - http://twitter.com/jmtd Jonathan Dowland
    
    I’ve seen loads of those in lots of different mediterranean holiday resort tourist tat shops.
sam1148

I want to throw them little life preservers.
- pipenta
  
  I do believe that was one of their earlier lines:
  
  http://www.imm-living.com/index.php?p=view_product&running=93&cat_id=10&mcat=
Rikki Simons

Neat! I wish there was one with Rambo’s head.
- http://libraries.unl.edu dross1260
  
  or the hand rising from the river in Deliverance
Cowicide

When I was a little kid, I had one that had a little, ceramic, green frog at the bottom looking up at me. I loved that cup.

I haven’t thought of that cup since I was a kid until now. ^_^
- Guest
  
  Me too! I believe it said “HELLO THERE” on the inside.
  - Cowicide
    
    Ha! It did, didn’t it?! I can’t remember for sure, but that really sounds familiar. We had the same cup!
allybeag

These are lovely, but when I read the description I imagined something that would be stuck to the bottom with something that dissolves slowly (some type of chocolate, perhaps?) and then floats to the top. Could be done, I guess, but chocolate flavoured tea might be pretty disgusting…
- retchdog
  
  choking hazards are fun!
marukosu

Well, that’s Valentine’s Day taken care of. Cheers, Cory!
http://profiles.google.com/dave.mckee David McKee

I used to have one of these, it had a cow. The only problem was that it would trap coffee beneath it, so you’d pour water into it and it’d look like the cow was shitting into the water.

Not pretty.
http://twitter.com/guy_jin guy f

Having found mouse poop in my coffee once, I can definitely say DO NOT WANT.
- Guest
  
  i scanned that as moose, and wondered mightily
http://twitter.com/CaptainMcsmoky Guy Brown

Found an epic “Jaws” style mug, If I’m having something looming out of my tea, its gunna be a god damn shark! http://makefun.cn/jaws-mug-shark-attack-mug/
Mladen Kalinic

Something that I wish we had in 1980s Yugoslavia :)
AncientScot

Had one of these with a frog once. The cool part was there was a built in air pocket. It was positioned so that when you lifted the cup to a high enough angle for the head to just be visible, the air bubble would release with a little *gloonk! and a splash.
Miguel Martins

There are some portuguese traditional mugs that employ the same trick with some more …erm… more awkward choices.

not safe for work example:
http://patrimonio.maisinfinito.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4&Itemid=8

Or just google for canecas das caldas ( Caldas mugs)

English article with no pics:
http://www.anorak.co.uk/185477/strange-but-true/the-portuguese-penis-factory.html/
Halloween Jack

My favorite alternative was the one with the eyeball in the bottom. Here’s looking at you, kid!
Rickmccl

Archie McPhee sells “shark” and “octopus” versions, that was the first time I had seen this kind of thing.
http://www.mcphee.com/shop/products/Octopus-Porcelain-Mug.html
- Lupus_Yonderboy
  
  You could also spend your money a little closer to home:
  
  http://shop.boingboing.net/product/Shark-Attack-Mug
  
  http://shop.boingboing.net/product/Octopus-Mug
  
  I just wish that they’d restock the Octopus, I’ve been wanting to give that to the wife for a minute now…
chgoliz

What a great way to remember to put the milk in first, then the tea….and no sugar, or the spoon twirlings will chip away at your surprise.
http://garethrees.org/ Gareth Rees

Do they make left-handed versions?
SomeGuyNamedMark

Cute but must be a p.i.t.a. to clean inside
- http://www.kmoser.com kmoser
  
  You might even say they’re a “bear” to clean.
http://sorcerersworkshop.org/ Sorcerer Mickey

The sculptor Jim Rumph made a set of King Kong mugs with a terrified Ann Darrow cowering in the bottom.
Pictures here: http://sorcerersworkshop.org/kongtankard.shtml
seyo

I had one with a frog in the bottom when I was a kid. Loved it. Only problem was that it severely decreased the volume left for the beverage. (Sorry if someone else already made that point but I’m too tired to read all the comments today.)
Afonso Loureiro

In Portugal there is a type of typical pottery from the city of Caldas da Rainha in which mugs ans sometimes bowls have a surprise in the bottom, much like these animals. But, in this case, the surprise is an erect phallus – the trademark of Caldas’ pottery.
- Halloween_Jack
  
  I want to believe that the little hole in the head leads to a reservoir that you can fill with cream before you put coffee in the cup.
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    Like fabric softener?
http://www.facebook.com/conordotgraham Conor Graham

There was a restaurant in, of all places, Calabogie, Ontario, called The Duck that did similar mugs, but they were bulbous and earthenware with little ducks inside them in various poses. In the one I had, I think the little guy was supposed to be playing tennis . . .
gwailo_joe

In the 80′s I gave my Dad a Work Is Hell coffee mug

when you finish your coffee, printed on the bottom, Binky the rabbit says ‘get back to work’

He still has it…
http://twitter.com/regularfry Alex Young

I’m sure I’ve seen antique naked-lady versions of these. Only from memory, they were rather peculiar soup-bowls.
peaceloveunderstanding

nice, but how do you stir?
- disky00
  
  That’s what I’m sayin’.