336 – Cup and saucer
- Physical description:
- Fortune telling teacup and saucer - original 'Nelros Cup of Fortune' by Aynsley, dating to 1904 - 1908. Zodiac symbols round saucer, and planetary signs and symbolic pictures inside cup, in black and red. Words around the outside of the cup.
- Museum classification:
- Divination, Fortune Telling and Scrying
- Size:
- 130mm x 50mm
- Information:
Sadly one of these two sets of cups and saucers was lost in the 2004 flood.
Original text by Cecil Williamson: 'Tea readers cost you money, so in late Victorian times the wide boys produced sets of do-it-yourself cups and saucers. These came complete with a racy book of instructions. Actually these cups and saucers, as seen here, became very popular, selling in their thousands. The green witches were not amused.The future holds a fascination for all mankind. To learn the shape of events and things to come has been a burning human desire in all ages. Reading the signs presented by the tea leaves in a tea cup drained of its liquid has been one of the favoured methods of divination.'
Tea leaf reading featured in the last witch trial in Guernsey. On 28th January 1914 Aimee Lake was sentenced to eight days in prison after using tea leaf divination to reveal to a client that she had been bewitched (information provided by Aimee's descendant by marriage John Lake).- Resource:
- Object
- Materials:
- Ceramic
- Copyright ownership:
- Copyright to The Museum of Witchcraft Ltd.
Sadly one of these two sets of cups and saucers was lost in the 2004 flood.
Original text by Cecil Williamson: 'Tea readers cost you money, so in late Victorian times the wide boys produced sets of do-it-yourself cups and saucers. These came complete with a racy book of instructions. Actually these cups and saucers, as seen here, became very popular, selling in their thousands. The green witches were not amused.The future holds a fascination for all mankind. To learn the shape of events and things to come has been a burning human desire in all ages. Reading the signs presented by the tea leaves in a tea cup drained of its liquid has been one of the favoured methods of divination.'
Tea leaf reading featured in the last witch trial in Guernsey. On 28th January 1914 Aimee Lake was sentenced to eight days in prison after using tea leaf divination to reveal to a client that she had been bewitched (information provided by Aimee's descendant by marriage John Lake).