Fairylite Foreign Cup of Knowledge Green Plain

From Mystic Tea Room

Revision as of 00:06, 14 February 2021

Interior of the Fairylite Foreign teacup

Fairylite Foreign saucer

Fairylite Foreign backstamp

Original boxed set of Fairylite Foreign cup, saucer, and instruction sheet for tea leaf reading

Fairylite was a British importer of Asian-made novelties during the post World War Two era. They dealt in paper goods, playing cards, toys, and other small items. Depending on the nature of the merchandise, the items are either marked "Fairylite Foreign" or "Fairylite Empire Made."

Fairylite fortune telling tea cups were made in Japan for export to Great Britain during the 1950s, and the pieces were marked "Foreign," to signify non-English origin. The Cup of Knowledge made by Fairylight was an illegal knock-off or patent infringement of the original pattern from England. Specifically, this cup is a close copy of the Aynsley Cup of Knowledge Mint Green.

Here's how to tell them apart:

• Pieces are backstamped "Fairylite Foreign" rather than "Aynsley".

• The colour of the Fairylite 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 Fairylite 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 foot of the Fairylite cup is amusingly Japanese, in a six-petal scallop shape.

• The handle of the Fairylite cup is a simple c-shape with an inward curl; the Aynsley cup handle is in the more elaborate Doris pattern

• Although the Fairylite Foreign Mint Green Cup of Knowledge has metallic gold pinstriping around the cup and saucer rims, the Fairylite has a mustard-yellow pin-line around the center of the saucer. If it were an Aynsley Cup of Knowledge Mint Green|Aynsley Mint Green]] cup, that pin-line would also be gold.

• The of the Fairylite Foreign Cup of Knowledge is a straight-out copy of the Aynsley Cup of Knowledge instruction booklet of its era. It can only be told apart from the Plain Gren B. Shackman Cup of Knowledge, which was also Made in Japan, which was made at the same factory for export to the United States rather than Great Britain, because it has the words "Fairylite Foreign" printed at upper left on the front.

DIV-TLR-JFMG

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