Museum Notebook: Ingenious moustache cups invented for 'the discerning gentleman'

Moustache cup with two pink flowers, 19th century. Whanganui Regional Museum Collection Ref: 1970.71.1

Coming in all shapes, from filmmaker provocateur John Waters' iconic pencil moustache to the bushy walrus style of Mark Twain, Albert Einstein and Joseph Stalin, it's that time of year again when usually clean-cut gents start cultivating moustaches all in the name of a good cause. Yes, welcome back to Movember.

It all started in 2003 when two Australian friends, Travis Garone and Luke Slattery, were enjoying a quiet beer in a pub.

Discussing recurring fashion trends, the duo's thoughts turned to the humble moustache. While it had enjoyed popularity in decades past, its fashion status had diminished. Garone and Slattery decided to see if they could persuade their friends into growing a moustache during the month of November.

Inspired by a friend's mother who was fundraising for cancer, the friends created the Movember campaign to raise awareness about men's mental health, suicide prevention, and prostate and testicular cancer, with the aim of reducing the number of men dying prematurely by 25 per cent. Movember has gone on to be a high-profile charity.

There was a time, however, when sporting a lustrous moustache was de rigueur.

In the western world, the popularity of the moustache peaked in the 1800s and 1890s. Men used hair tonics, oils and waxes to keep their whiskers in tip-top shape. A recipe from Aunt Daisy's Handy Hints for a hair tonic is listed as follows: 3oz tincture of cantharides, 1oz oil of rosemary, 6oz bay rum and 1oz olive oil. The recipe stated that if you added 1oz of rock sulphur it "should retard the coming of grey hairs".

But one of the disadvantages mustachioed men faced was how when they sipped hot tea, the heat would cause moustache wax to melt, disturbing the integrity of both the moustache and its owner. And, of course, long moustaches got in the way while sipping from delicate teacups.

Moustache cup with matching saucer, around 1910. Whanganui Regional Museum Collection Ref: TH.1939

It is believed the ingenious "moustache cup" was invented by British potter Harvey Adams in 1860 so the discerning gentleman could maintain elegance and avoid awkward moustache-dunking while tea-sipping. Adams developed a discrete butterfly-shaped shelf inside the teacup with a hole to drink from to keep moustaches clean and dry. There was a suitably sized moustache cup for every tea-drinker, from large "farmer's cups" which could hold a pint of tea, to finer, dainty cups.

The Whanganui Regional Museum collection holds a small selection of moustache teacups. From the 19th century, one is ceramic and has two pretty pink flowers and leaves painted on one side, dots of gold gilt above the flower pattern, and around the top edge of the moustache bridge there is a small handle with a patterned hole at the base.

Another orange and green ceramic cup and saucer set from around 1910 has a sweet floral pattern around the outside of the cup and top of the saucer. It features gilt around the lip of the cup and saucer, the moustache bridge in the cup, and on the handle. The saucer was broken and then glued back together before it found its way into the Museum's collection.

• Kiran Dass is the marketing and communications co-ordinator at the Whanganui Regional Museum.