Morley House Tea Leaf Reading Tea Cup
From Mystic Tea Room
The Morley House Tea Leaf Reading Tea Cup, released in 1972, was the only fortune telling tea cup and saucer created for and distributed by Morley House Direct Marketing in Australia.
The cup is a coffee can shape with elaborate full colour symbols inside and on the saucer, as well as a poem around the outside of the cup. The symbols within the cup clearly derive from those just below the rim inside the 1904 Nelros Cup of Fortune, and are this, as well as the coffee can shape indicates that it is also related to the Jon Anton Cup of Fortune and its derivatives. However, unlike these cups, it contains no astrological markings and is purely a symbol cup. Because the saucer on the Nelros Cup of Fortune family consists only of astrological markings, which are absent on the Morley set, the saucer symbols are unique to this set.
The poem, also a descendant from the Nelros original, reads, "Maybe the leaves will disclose to thee, the future thous't would wish to see."
The cup stands about 2 1/4" tall and is about 3" in diameter. The saucer is about 6" across. The bottom is stamped "Morley House Direct Marketing, © 1972, decorated in Australia by Westminster China."
DIV-TLR-MORL
catherine yronwode
curator, historian, and docent
The Mystic Tea Room
