Guess the object: The Moustache cup

The moustache cup I purchased on ebay is one of the most popular artefacts I use with students in a good game of ‘guess the object’. It has a wonderful quality of being at the same time familiar yet strange. Despite telling the students not to start with the question of ‘what is it’ so that they can carry out a source investigation, they inevitably do. However, they are often stumped for an explanation – which is where the fun begins.