Category:Gypsy Teacup

From Mystic Tea Room

Latest revision as of 16:56, 25 November 2020

The Gypsy Teacup by Originality Plus; scallop design cup and saucer with instruction sheet

The Gypsy Teacup by Originality Plus of Los Angeles, California is an unusual symbol cup issued in 1959, according to the copyright data on its backstamp. It was manufactured in Japan for an importer known as Bradley Exclusives. There are two variations, one with a free-hand scallop design around the saucer, and another with a more formal zig-zag design around the saucer. The symbols are tiny transfers, each contained within a circle; and because they are hand-placed, no two cups exactly the same. As the instruction sheet explains, due to the small size of the symbols, after noting the tea leaf patterns, one should use a chopstick to push them aside to reveal the symbols beneath. The outside of the cup has a series of words on it in an informal style of lettering. Although it is language, it does not meet the qualifications for Poetry on Cups and Saucers.

From the Instruction sheet:

The Gypsy Teacup

copyright 1959

Originality Plus, 92 W. 23rd. St., Los Angeles 7, Cal.

Made by Bradley Exclusives, Japan.

Instructions included. White porcelain

Saucer measures 5.75" across; teacup 1 7/8"H, 3.75"D

DIV-TLR-XXXX

catherine yronwode
curator, historian, and docent
The Mystic Tea Room

See Also

• Tea Cup Makers and Markers
• Tea Cup Names, Official and Unofficial
• Tea Cups by Style of Divination
• Nations of Origin
• Specially-Marked Commemoratives
• Design Patents