OxfordBear
Here’s an unusual deck of old fortune telling cards I picked up some years ago in an eccentric little shop in Bristol, England – the “Kut-A-Karde Fortune Telling Cards” by A. H. Kitley. They’re of British manufacture and look old – mid-twentieth century, perhaps, as they’re in a somewhat similar condition to some of the old card games my father played as a child, but this is a guess, as there’s no date on the packaging or in the instructions sheet, and all I can find about them on the Web is a long-ended listing on EBay.
There are fifty cards in all – One to Ten in the five suits of Suns, Moons, Stars, Ships and Castles. The Suns are about money and success (the most fortunate card in the pack is the Five of Suns); the Moons are about various problems; the Stars cover love and friendships; the Ships are about business dealings; and the Castles describe people, three of which are women and seven of which are men.
The cards are without illustration of any kind; each one, aside from the number/suit index (which appears in the upper left and, reversed, in the lower right corner of the card) bears only its title and a brief description of its meaning, both of which are printed sideways (i.e. you turn the card to “landscape” position to read them.) For instance, the One of Stars:
“ADMIRATION: Do not expect too much and your future life will be really happy. You are admired by both sexes. A letter or some pleasant news.”
The instruction sheet recommends two methods of reading: (1) dealing seven piles of seven cards each, for “yourself”, “your home”, “your wish”, “what you least expect”, “what is sure to come true”, “the surprise” and “your future”, and (2) cutting the pack into three and dealing the top three cards from each pile, the piles representing “yourself”, “your home” and “the answer to your wish”. It also offers extra meanings for if groups of three Ones, Fives, Sevens, Eights or Nines come up in your readings, and provides an easy method of finding out when or if a “SENSIBLE WISH” (in sternly frowning capital letters) will come true, depending on the suit which has the most cards dealt when you’ve cut the pack into three and picked one of the piles.
This is not a “pretty” deck – as I say, it has no illustrations, and it’s cheaply printed in black on uncoated cream-coloured card. The corners of the cards are unrounded, and in fact the cards themselves are slightly unevenly cut. However, to me these things are part of the deck’s charm. It’s a “no frills” creation which comes, if my guess at its age is anything to go by, from a time in British history when “frills” were in short supply. So, hurrah for its unapologetic unfrilliness.
Does anybody else out there in Aeclectic Land own these cards, or have any information about them?
There are fifty cards in all – One to Ten in the five suits of Suns, Moons, Stars, Ships and Castles. The Suns are about money and success (the most fortunate card in the pack is the Five of Suns); the Moons are about various problems; the Stars cover love and friendships; the Ships are about business dealings; and the Castles describe people, three of which are women and seven of which are men.
The cards are without illustration of any kind; each one, aside from the number/suit index (which appears in the upper left and, reversed, in the lower right corner of the card) bears only its title and a brief description of its meaning, both of which are printed sideways (i.e. you turn the card to “landscape” position to read them.) For instance, the One of Stars:
“ADMIRATION: Do not expect too much and your future life will be really happy. You are admired by both sexes. A letter or some pleasant news.”
The instruction sheet recommends two methods of reading: (1) dealing seven piles of seven cards each, for “yourself”, “your home”, “your wish”, “what you least expect”, “what is sure to come true”, “the surprise” and “your future”, and (2) cutting the pack into three and dealing the top three cards from each pile, the piles representing “yourself”, “your home” and “the answer to your wish”. It also offers extra meanings for if groups of three Ones, Fives, Sevens, Eights or Nines come up in your readings, and provides an easy method of finding out when or if a “SENSIBLE WISH” (in sternly frowning capital letters) will come true, depending on the suit which has the most cards dealt when you’ve cut the pack into three and picked one of the piles.
This is not a “pretty” deck – as I say, it has no illustrations, and it’s cheaply printed in black on uncoated cream-coloured card. The corners of the cards are unrounded, and in fact the cards themselves are slightly unevenly cut. However, to me these things are part of the deck’s charm. It’s a “no frills” creation which comes, if my guess at its age is anything to go by, from a time in British history when “frills” were in short supply. So, hurrah for its unapologetic unfrilliness.
Does anybody else out there in Aeclectic Land own these cards, or have any information about them?
