Released on 4.1.2019

2019 - The Year of Friendship

The year 2019 is a special anniversary for “100 Years of Finnish-Japanese Friendship”.

When a Finn meets a friend, what do you think is the first question we ask? Yes, we say “Would you like to have a cup of coffee?”

Astialiisa is famous for its collection of coffee cups made in Finland during the last 100 years. In the shop we have more than 300 different models or decorations. A comprehensive reference library is available to the customers and we are more than happy to answer any questions concerning the history of these beautiful items. You are most welcome to visit us in Helsinki.

For Astialiisa Online we opened a new set of Shopkeeper’s recommendations: a special collection of coffee sets. These cups are mainly from 1970s and hand-picked by Tiina from a private collection. For this reason we only have one piece of each beautiful set available. These vintage sets have been in use, so you might see some tiny marks of that. Don’t let it stop you, they are wonderful and you still can set them on the table and impress your friends as they enjoy coffee with you.

Stencil-decorated coffee cups by Arabia are popular collector items in Finland and seldom seen for sale in this scale, with more than 100 different decorations. Some of these decorations don’t have official names, but the collectors have given them names describing the pattern.

Stencilled decorations are produced with a perforated model, stencil, as the ink is forced through it to create a pattern onto the surface of the cup. This method was widely used by Arabia especially in 1970s. Stencils were used to produce affordable dishwasher safe everyday coffee cups with a little bit rougher quality. The technique leaves the edges of the decoration soft compared to silk screening. This gives the cups a feel of handicraft. The decorations are simple but adorable and they are often highlighted by a solid coloured saucer.

To complete this online selection, we added some hand-painted or printed porcelain cups for those who appreciate a more festive style, but feel free to create your own style with our normal online selection.

For this New Year of the Friendship we wish you a lot of precious moments over a cup of coffee or tea with your friends and loved ones.

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