DHAKA: A German furniture store chain has apologised for selling coffee mugs featuring faint portraits of Adolf Hitler it had mistakenly ordered from a Chinese supplier.

A news report said on Thursday, The Straits Times publishes on Friday.

The vintage-style ceramic cups feature a faint image of a Nazi-era postage stamp that shows a black-and-white profile of Hitler, postmarked with a swastika stamp, all obscured by other design elements including a rose and cursive script.

The Zurbrueggen furniture chain had ordered a batch of 5,000 of the mugs and had already sold at least 175 when the mistake was noticed, reported the Neue Westfaelische Zeitung daily from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

The owner blamed the ‘terrible’ mistake on ‘a stupid chain of unfortunate circumstances’ involving a Chinese designer who has mistakenly chosen the image of the Nazi leader, the news report said.

BDST: 0245 HRS, APR 11, 2014