Fortune Telling Postcards by Fred C. Lounsbury
From Mystic Tea Room
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Revision as of 02:29, 26 December 2020
Fred. C. Lounsbury founded the Crescent Embossing Co. in 1896. The company's printing and embossing plant was located in Plainfield, New Jersey, and by 1910 he had offices in New York City and Philadelphia, as well as a sales representative based in Boston. Best known for his patriotic and holiday-themed chromolithographic cards, advertising folders, and calendars, Lounsbury also released several sets of fortune telling postcards in 1907 and 1908.
Each "Good Fortunes" set consists of six gold-embossed chromolitho postcards depicting lucky symbolism associated with a different type of fortune telling:
- Tea leaf reading
- Domino reading
- Dice reading
- Cartomancy with a single playing card
- Cartomancy with a hand of playing cards
Although the cards are signed and copyrighted in the name of Fred. C. Lounsbury, it is known that he was not an artist, but employed a team of artists to produce designs for his company. The same artist -- name unknown -- drew all of the "Good Fortunes" cards.
The tea leaf postcards issued by Lounsbury were intended to be sent as greetings, but they can also be used by fledgling tasseomancers as study cups on the way to learning a basic list of tea leaf symbols.
catherine yronwode
curator, historian, and docent
The Mystic Tea Room