Birthday and Birthstone Postcards
One of the earliest postcards that related months to lucky gemstones and their symbolism as omens was the 1907 embossed and gilded "Birthday Souvenir" by The Colortype Company of Chicago, Illinois. Ostensibly designed as a single birthday card suitable for anyone, it opened the door to the creation of many twelve-card sets of birthstone greetings that delved into zodiacal gemstone magic, character analyses, and the language of flowers.
The poem on this card follows the familiar sing-song pattern i call "the English Enchantment," This scansion, with a variety of wording, is found on many fortune telling tea cups, as seen at our sister-site, The Mystic Tea Room in the page about Poetry on Cups and Saucers. Dating back at least to the Renaissance and the writing of William Shakespeare, such verses are found to this day in the metrical magical spells of the Anglo-Saxon people.
Birthday Souvenir
Among the gems that here abound
Your birthstone will be surely found
Good fortune may it always bring,
Tho' set in locket or in ring.
And may the years that to you come
Bring joy wherever you may roam;
May health and peace be ever yours
And love that thro' all time endures;
So look upon your birthstone here,
Where all the other gems appear,''
And know that yours I deem the best,
Tho' rare and beauteous be the rest.
All twelve stones are arrayed on a single ribboned necklace, with words around each stone, as follows:
January: Garnet: Friendship
February: Amethyst: Sincerity
March: Bloodstone: Courage
April: Diamond: Purity
May: Emerald: Happiness
June: Agate: Health
July: Ruby: Love
August: Sardonyx: Felicity
September: Sapphire: Wisdom
October: Opal: Hope
November: Topaz: Fidelity
December: Turquoise: Success
For further thoughts about these birthstones and their symbolism, see The Tiffany Birthstone Poem from 1870, which influenced these early 20th century postcards.
Now, before this list of months and meanings for each gemstone is taken as definitive or authoritative, it must be compared with other sets of correspondences. Here is the first in that set.
I have more than dozen different sets of birthstone, character analysis, and zodiac cards by a variety of publishers, dating from 1907 through 1925, and i will periodically add sets to the list above until they are all online and this little notice disappears.
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catherine yronwode
curator, historian, and docent
Your Wate and Fate