The Fortune Cup
From Mystic Tea Room
The Fortune Cup is the somewhat generic name given to a rare cartomancy cup and saucer set created by Verna A. Meredith and John W. Meredith, which bears a copyright date of 1965. It was manufactured in England for the Merediths by the large Johnson Brothers pottery on their popular 1960 Snowhite Regncy swirl shape, and was probably decorated in one of the company's plants in America or Canada.
I have not found any newspaper or magazine advertisements for The Fortune Cup by this husband and wife team, but they were definitely American, not British, because in 1965 they took out an American copyright on "The Fortune Cup" name and a drawing, which was subtitled "Cross of Playing Cards." The copyright notice reads as follows:
- MEREDITH, JOHN W.
- The fortune cup. See MEREDITH, VERNA A.
- MEREDITH, VERNA A.
- The fortune cup. [Cross of playing cards] Drawing. © Verna A. & John W. Meredith; 12 May 65; GU3863O.
The contents of the copyrighted "Cross of Playing Cards Drawing" is unknown to me, but one guess is that the drawing depicts a card layout of some kind. There are quite a few "Cross" layouts used by fortune tellers, from the Celtic Cross to the Cross of Fifteen, but without the picture itself, it is impossible to know what was intended, or how this drawing relates to the actual tea set shown here, beyond the obvious fact that they were both released the same year.
The rarity of the Meredith Fortune Cup comes about because it was not a regular issuance from the [:Category:Johnson Brothers|Johnson Brothers]] pottery and was not marketed by them. Instead -- like the Zancigs Cup of Destiny, made by the Anchor Pottery; Genevieve Wimsatt's Chinese Fortune-Telling Teacup, made by the Canonsburg Pottery; and the Creative Art Products Romany Cup of Fortune, made by Cavitt-Shaw -- this was a custom job, designed by, and delivered to, a small home-based business, in this case, Verna A. and John W. Meredith. Who they were and where they lived is still a mystery, but if more information comes to light, you'll see it here.
DIV-TLR-FOME
catherine yronwode
curator, historian, and docent
The Mystic Tea Room
