Village Cup is part of a series of works produced in Los Angeles and Taos between 1970 and 1977.  Eventually, many of these works were included in the exhibition, Happy's Curios which was at LACMA in 1977.  Village Cup was inspired by Ken and Happy Price's many trips to Tonalá, Mexico.

Tonalá, near rich clay seams, has been a center of pottery — and of trade more broadly — for millenniums. It remains one of Mexico’s top artisanal hubs; the streets are lined with shops and ateliers, and a complex at its heart features nothing but earthenware