Mystery Dog Mug

It's fascinating to me that an artist of a ceramic piece can be recognized by their style. I learn so much from other clay artist's blogs. Patricia Griffin of Clay Mouse Studio has a fun series of posts on her blog about identifying famous potter's ceramic pieces. After reading about each potter, I check to see if the potter has a website and then I read all about their ceramics. I'm learning all about ceramic style.

By reading comments on blogs I am often curious about other ceramic artist's blogs, so I check those out too. After perusing Gary Rith's Potter's Blog, I was reminded of a ceramic mug my husband had when we got married 23 years ago. If you check out Gary's ceramic pieces you'll see why it reminded me of this mug. The mug has moved with us six different times. I always loved the whimsy of the mug and never wanted to use it for fear of breaking it.

Another way to determine the artist of a ceramic piece is to look on the bottom and see if it is signed. So if there is any doubt as to the identity of the artist the signature or mark could be a determining factor.

I took the mug out of the cabinet to look at it again today and was so surprised to see it is marked on the bottom. But which way should I look at the mark? Perhaps the underlines should be at the bottom?

Does anyone know who made this mug? Was it a famous potter, is it a factory mark? Please let me know if you have any clues.