Patreon-From-the-Land-of-Tea-Feb-2021-Unmarked Made in Japan Cup of Knowledge Plain Green

From Mystic Tea Room

Revision as of 21:54, 14 February 2021

From the Land of Tea, Installment #2

February 14th, 2021

In the Second installment of "From the Land of Tea," we take sneak-peek look at upcoming pages that will eventually be on display at the Mystic Tea Room web site. As a Patreon supporter, you have access to these page one full year before the public does. Brief teaser for these pages are available to the public here:

• B. Shackman Cup of Knowledge Green Plain
• Fairylite Foreign Cup of Knowledge Green Plain
• Unmarked Made in Japan Cup of Knowledge Plain Green

The public teaser page is lacking text and caption explanations as shown on this Patreon Preview Page. It functions as a link to my Patreon account. Patreon supporters at Tier 2 (The Selector) and above have access to this private page. To read about and subscribe to higher tiers, please see my Patreon page here:

"It's All Ephemera with Cat Yronwode"

The finished version of "Your Fortune in a Tea-Cup Postcards" will be released live to the public in FEBRUARY 2022. To discuss this page and other Mystic Tea Room Patreon pages with me, join my private Patreon Forum here:

Private Patreon Forum for The Mystic Tea Room

Next week's Patreon Preview Page will be ready on February 21st, 2021. The links will be available to Patrons who have subscribed at Tier 3 (The Reader) and above. The Topic will be Your Wate and Fate.

Today we are going to look at an unusual fortune telling teacup used in the practice of tasseomancy. the Unmarked Made in Japan Cup of Knowledge Plain Green.

This Japan Cup of Knowledge saucer bottom is unmarked; it may have had a foil tag or paper sticker that was lost

Instruction book for this Cup of Knowledge

This Unmarked Cup of Knowledge that was made in Japan is a generic, unauthorized knock-off of the Aynsley Cup of Knowledge was, like many others, made in Japan. It is a cartomancy cup that is, except for its packaging, virtually identical to the green Japanese Fairylite Foreign and B. Shackman cups of the same era. It came with a booklet titled "The Cup of Knowledge: A Fascinating and Exciting Pastime: How to Read the Tea Leaves."

If the booklet is lost or the stickers come off, this becomes an Unmarked Cup of Knowledge that was made in Japan. It is then indistinguishable from a B. Shackman Cup of Knowledge that has lost its back stickers. It can, however, be distinguished from a Fairylite Foreign Cup of knowledge, because the Fairylite Foreign mark is a regular underglaze iron-red backstamp.

This Japanese Cup pf Knowledge was manufactured by the same (as yet unidentified) Japanese pottery that manufactured the Fairylite Foreign Cup of Knowledge Plain Green for export to England, with a copy of the Aynsley instruction booklet; The B. Shackman Cup of Knowledge, which was also accompanied by a copy of the Aynsley instruction booklet; and the Unmarked Green Japanese Cup of Knowledge that came with its own different and unique instruction booklet.

Here's how to tell the Fairylite set apart from others:

• Pieces are backstamped "Fairylite Foreign" rather than "Aynsley" or being left with a paper sticker or no backstamp. British law at the time required the "Foreign" backstamp under the glaze, while the United States, where B. Shackman only insisted upon a paper label, and once the label the label was washed off, there was no visible backstamp at all. Thus all of the sets marked "Fairlyite Foreign" went to Great Britain and all of those with paper labels, many of with now present as unmarked, went to the United States.

• The colour of the B. Shackman, Fairylite, and Unmarked Japanese Green Cup of Knowledge clay body is slightly greyish, typical of Japanese ware, but unlike British bone china, which is a bright white.

• The quality of the transfers of the B. Shackman, Fairylite, and Unmarked Japanese Green Cup of Knowledge playing cards is muddier than the English originals, with a yellowish tinge inside the cards.

• Despite the attempt to closely copy a British tea cup shape, the feet of the B. Shackman, Fairylite and Unmarked Japanese Green Cup of Knowledge cups are amusingly Japanese, in a classic six-petal scallop shape.

• The handle of the B. Shackman, Fairylite and Unmarked Japanese Green Cup of Knowledge cups are a simple C-shape with an inward curl; the Aynsley cup handle is in the more elaborate Doris pattern.

• Although the B. Shackman, Fairylite and Unmarked Japanese Green Cup of Knowledge sets have metallic gold pin-striping around the cup and saucer rims, the Fairylite has a mustard-yellow pin-line around the center of the saucer. If they were an Aynsley Cup of Knowledge Mint Green|Aynsley Mint Green]] cups, that pin-line would also be gold.

• The instruction booklet of the B. Shackman and Fairylite Foreign Cup of Knowledge sets are straight-out copies of the Aynsley Cup of Knowledge instruction booklet of their era. They can be told apart from the original because the B. Shackman instruction booklet reads "Tell Your Fortune in the Tea Leaves" at bottom center of the front cover, the Fairylite Foreign has the words "Fairylite Foreign" printed at upper left on the front cover; and the [Unmarked Made in Japan Cup of Knowledge Plain Green|Unmarked Japanese Green Cup of Knowledge]] has its own unique

DIV-TLR-JUMG

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