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Animal Tarot

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Animal Tarot
« on: May 15, 2014, 07:33:42 PM »
 

52plusjoker

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I have been watching and waiting for someone to post information or a question about Tarot cards. They go back to the murky origins of playing cards in Europe in the 14th century and were used for many games especially conceived to use such cards. Here are four cards from an incomplete Tarock deck of 54 cards made by a Belgian manufacturer in the mid-19th century which we purchased recently for a modest sum. Hopefully Cartorama will be able to shed more light on them. Tarot cards can be fascinating, historic and beautiful. All vintage/antique card collectors should look at them in that light and try to add examples to their collections. It's not all about divination and fortune telling!!

The cards shown are the Knave of Hearts with the maker's name and three of the 22 trumps or atouts as they are known in France.

I'll be most interested in comments on this topic.
Tom Dawson
52 Plus Joker Playing Card Collectors Club
 

Re: Animal Tarot
« Reply #1 on: May 20, 2014, 05:06:34 AM »
 

CARTORAMA

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Hello Tom and all,
First of all, thank you for the advance credit of faith in my abilities.
Tarot packs differ from „normal“ decks in that they have an additional court card, the Cavalier, a man on horseback, between Queen and Jack, plus 22 trumps: the Fool, mostly without a number, and 21 numbered ones, from 1 to 21. Makes 78 cards. Well, at the beginning, all tarot packs were Italian-suited, i.e. with Swords, Batons, Cups and Coins (these suits are still in use today, for example in Italy, and in the Spanish variant, in many parts of the world.) The trumps used to show typical figures and allegories, the Empress, the Lover, the Hermit, the World, the Last Judgment…
Another kind of tarot packs came up around the middle of the 18th century, this time with French suits (Hearts, Spades…) and completely different representations on the trumps: animals. Why? For mercantile reasons probably, or because people wanted more earthbound images, and no more admonition to Justice and Temperance when they were playing at cards.
From the Upper Rhine region the type spread over Middle and Northern Europe. It is no longer in use today, on the contrary to other types of tarot packs like the Austrian „Industrie und Glück“ (Industry and Fortune, named after the inscription on Trump 2), or the „Tarot Nouveau“ with representations of modern life in the city and on the countryside, still played in France and in the bordering part of Germany. Apart from those „standard“ packs, tarots were also deflected to show many other topics such as flowers, politics, history, geography, art… There is a lot to collect here.
The cards shown by Tom must be placed at the end of the evolution of animal tarots. They were printed in color lithography probably around 1910 as Geuens-Willaert took over from his parents in 1901 and seemingly ceased business activities in playing cards in the twenties. The pack would have been complete with 78 cards (the versions with 54 – and even less – cards belong to „Industrie und Glück“, and so to Austria-Hungary.)
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Re: Animal Tarot
« Reply #2 on: May 24, 2014, 05:27:24 AM »
 

52plusjoker

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Thanks Jean for the helpful information
Tom Dawson
52 Plus Joker Playing Card Collectors Club
 

Re: Animal Tarot
« Reply #3 on: May 24, 2014, 06:40:34 PM »
 

sprouts1115

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The best website I have to compare Tarot Decks is:  http://www.albideuter.de 

It's a great resource, but it's in German.  What I have found interesting was the original list of the Tarot by this monk:  http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Sermones_de_Ludo_Cum_Aliis   Any thoughts on this?  Notice the groupings and structure of the cards.  There seems to be 3 groupings.  In the first group "The Pope" is on top in 1470. 

Then the Rider-Waite Tarot came along.   http://www.wopc.co.uk/tarot/rider-waite/   I know lets take the pips from the Sola - Busca tarot see the 3 of Swords and take the trumps and courts from the Cary - Yale.    While we are at it lets change the position of Justice and Strength because we can.   We hit the bundle button and bang we have the most accepted Tarot Card Deck for over 100 years...
« Last Edit: May 25, 2014, 08:44:12 AM by sprouts1115 »
 

Re: Animal Tarot
« Reply #4 on: May 27, 2014, 02:43:44 AM »
 

CARTORAMA

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"What I have found interesting was the original list of the Tarot by this monk:  http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Sermones_de_Ludo_Cum_Aliis   Any thoughts on this?  Notice the groupings and structure of the cards.  There seems to be 3 groupings.  In the first group "The Pope" is on top in 1470."

Please read on this matter "Early Italian Lists of Tarot Trumps" by T. Depaulis in The Playing-Card, vol. 36, no 1, July-Sept. 2007

And a must-read on tarot packs like Rider-Waite or better Waite-Smith: A History of the Occult Tarot 1870-1970 by R. Decker and M. Dummett, Duckworth 2002
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