Taltos Fortune Telling Cup (1980) Royal Kendal
From Mystic Tea Room
The Taltos Fortune Telling Cup by Royal Kendal of Staffordshire, England, is an authorized copy of continuation of the Taltos cup by Jon Anton. It is covered with extensive designs from astrology and tea leaf symbolism for fortune telling. Around the cup a line of reads,"Woulds't Thy Fortune Like to See... Perchance This Cup Will Show It To Thee."
Like all Taltos and Zarka cups, as well as the Jane Lyle Cup of Destiny, the Royal Kendal Taltos cup is a full-colour "cover version" of the extremely popular and influential Nelros Cup of Fortune of 1904. The distinguishing characteristic of the Taltos cups and their derivatives is the use of a modernistic cylinder as the cup-shape, rather than the gracefully outward-spreading shape found in most English tea cups, which is said to have been inspired by the form of a lily flower.
It is a curiosity to collectors that on the back of the instruction booklet supplied with this cup, the name "Kendal" is mis-spelled -- it is given as "Kendall," with 2 Ls, while the cups and saucers are themselves correctly marked "Kendal" with one L, as shown here.
The Royal Kendal Taltos Fortune Telling Cup measures 2 3/8" high, and 3 3/4" wide, including the handle, with a 2 7/8" opening and a 1 5/8" base. The saucer is 5 1/2" wide.
DIV-TLR-TARK
DIV-TLX-TAXR
catherine yronwode
curator, historian, and docent
The Mystic Tea Room
