Parlour Room Divination: The Birthday Oracle (1883)

The Birthday Oracle, or Whom Shall I Marry: Guess at the Character or Appearance of Your Future Husband or Wife. Edinburgh: William P. Nimmo, 1883.

(105 x 85 mm) pp. 248, [8]. Machline binding with photo of Old Aberdeen Cathedral. Leather spine with gilt panels. Floral endpapers and decorative edges. Full gilt foredges. Ornamental border printed on all pages. Names written adjacent to birthdays, with dates ranging from 1880s to 1950s (several dates pre-date book’s publication indicating birth year of person rather than date inscribed). Includes handwritten index of names (19th c.).

This Mauchline-wear binding relic of the Victorian era shows continued usage from the 1880s to the 1950s— following the hopes of several (possibly related?) families through height of the Spiritualist movement, through the First and Second World Wars into Britain’s Post-War period. The Birthday Oracle falls into the Victorian middle class fervour for accessing knowledge from beyond the veil. Though true Spiritualists relied more on seances, Ouija boards, and other means of contacting the Beyond, this little book pairs birthdays with couplets of poetry for men and women to reveal traits of their future partners. Throughout the pages, several family names and birthdays appear. Warr and Slalin(?) are written in a nineteenth century hand and the Rabbitts appear in the 1950s. For near a century, this book was an active part in hopeful contemplation about what the future could hold— now it has the opportunity to be an active part in contemplating what the past must have looked like in these protean moments in Britain.