Fairylite Foreign Cup of Knowledge Green Plain

From Mystic Tea Room

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 Japanese maker of porcelain for export to Great Britain, 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 Fairylite Mint Green Cup of Knowledge has a mustard-yellow pin-line around the center of the saucer. If it were an Aynsley cup, that pin-line would be gold.

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