01Puss in Boots Fortune Telling Machine US c1896 The machine selects a card and gives to the depositor of the one cent. Smith Collection.

02 Chesterfield Cigarettes advert, 194303 selling the future anxieties in Insurance.04 advertisement US 05 Yvonne B.Charlot, Tea-Cup Fortune Telling with a Chapter on Mascots & Lucky Charms, Universal Pulications, London 1936 cover page size 10 x 17cms 06 electric light bulbs07 cartoon, scout and gypsy fortune teller08 From The Complete Works of Jean Baptiste Belot,
published in 1640, the signs of the Zodiac to be read on the hands.
 09, 10 hand amulets (front and back each) with composite charms to repel the Evil Eye reproduced from Elworthy's The Evil Eye, Murray London 1893 11 Divining the Future by Markings in the Finger Joints

1. Grand Peace and Luck
2. A little patience
3. Prompt Joy
4. Red Mouth (disappointment and quarrels
5. Scanty Luck
6. Loss and Death
from Henry Dore (M.Kennelly trans) , Researches into Chinese Superstitions, T'Usewei Printing Press, Shanghai 1914

12 One of the celebrated French Popular prints, Un Image d'Epnal (at the Pellerin Factory), a portrait of the Seer and Teller of the Future, Nostradamus.

13 The Oraculum

14 Chinese almanac

15, 16, from Francesco Marcolini, Giardino dei pensieri... Venice 1784.This is a famous reprint of the 1550 classic work on fortune telling and cards with new emblematic illustrations by Giuseppe Daniotto.

17 from Maistre Laurens l'Esprit Le Passe-Temps de la Fortune des dez.... Paris 1534 the use of dice in fortune telling

18 The Oraculum was a standard way of divining the future to be found in many almanacs of the nineteenth century. Simply make lines of dots, ask the question, and seek your answer.  

19 two leaves from T'Ung Shu an ancient Chinese almanac Divination from physiognomic features (above) and from the tables of the Four Seasons (below)

20 Sigismondo Fanti, Triumpha di fortuna, the 1521 edition with disputed authorship of the images - perhaps Dosso Dossi. One of the many Fortune Telling books in sixteenth century Italy.

21 Lorenzo Spirito, El Libro dala Ventura overo il Libro de la Sorte , Milan 1501, and a book with rich decoration and multiple imagery of Kings. The reader seeks guidance for the future by choosing a King figure which acts as a signpost to an instruction of throwing a dice, which again leads to the figure of a prophet and an advisory text.

22 A Chinese Divination Compass intended to indicate the most auspicious direction or place for construction or the occurrence of an event. From Henry Dore (M.Kennelly trans) , Researches into Chinese Superstitions, T'Usewei Printing Press, Shanghai 1922

 

IN CARTOON FORM

a new gallery

IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN 1

IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN 2