Vintage Cartomancy Deck: Prophetic Cards for Ladies

OnePotato

I recently bought a very nice, and quite early cartomancy deck of 50 cards, with the original box.
I must admit I don't know much about this area, but I'm quite smitten with this particular deck.

They are finely engraved copperplate printed, and beautifully hand colored.
The drawing quality is fantastic.
The whole presentation is wonderfully atmospheric.

The box is made of patterned board, with a printed label glued to the front.
Top flaps are missing.

Many cards are titled in three languages, (German, French and Italian,) but some also include English and Dutch.

Going by the overall quality, I would guess these were produced in the first quarter of the 19th century.
And based upon a very tiny date on one of the coins in the money card, and a date on a tiny grave marker in another card, I would narrow it down to circa 1816.

Unfortunately, I could not find a maker's signature anywhere.
Given the quality of the work, I'm surprised at this.

As the main title is in German, I'd assume a Bavarian origin.
Perhaps the English and Dutch titles were added to the plates later, for export to those countries?

Has anyone seen anything like these before?
When I have some time, I want to compare the subjects to a Lenormand deck, to see how closely they might be related.

I'm also hoping to do some digging to see if I can get any clues that might identify the maker.
 

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emmsma

I have no help to offer you, but congrats on the very lovely acquisition.
 

WolfyJames

The deck you have looks very much like sibillas which are old as well, a bit after the Petit LeNormand was made. The first sibilla was made in France and was called Sibille du Salon in honor of Mlle LeNormand. The deck is still in publication and is called different names depending of the publisher, for one publisher it's Parlour Sibyl and for Lo Scarabeo it's Sibilla Oracle Cards.

The deck was so popular in Europe some countries made their own version, in some east european countries they have one like the Gipsy Fortune Telling Cards whose real name is Zigeuner Warsagekarten, there is another from Vienna called Biedermeier Fortune Telling Cards.

My favorites are the ones from Italy, there are two old italian sibillas as well, one called La Vera Sibilla and another Sibilla Della Zingara, both are still being published; there are as well more modern italian sibillas that have been made in Italy, would be hard to count, but I have two in my possession, the I Misteri della Sibilla and La Magica Sibilla. My favorite sibilla is the I Misteri della Sibilla.

The original sibilla has the playing cards insert and some following sibillas have the playing cards insert too and some don't. To resume sibillas show with illustrated images the meanings of the playing cards.
 

MareSaturni

What a beautiful deck! OnePotato, i think you've got yourself a small prize :D

I agree with Wolfy though, it does look like it could be a Sibilla, or one of it's cousins. There's card about money, travel, marriage...just like the sibillas.

It is probably an old parlor game deck - i think they were very common during the 19th century. So the chances of you finding the publisher are even slimmer - don't you even have the country in which it was published? (Well, probably Germany or Austria, since the big keywords are in german... even though most of the parlor game decks i know of were made in France)

Awesome deck!

ETA: Here's some info on the deck, including many pictures of it!
http://www.findcheapauctions.com/ebay/300382684860.html

Antique French or German fortune telling card deck. 50 Cards with original box. Cover of box reads "Prophetic Cards For Ladies," and "Gluckskarten Fur Damen," and "Cartes du Destin aux Dames." Cards measure abut 3 1/2 by 2 1/8 inches. I believe these date from around the 1820s or so, perhaps a bit earlier or later. The costumes and furniture look to be of a late 18th or early 19th Century style. Most (but not all) cards have descriptions on the bottom written in five languages. Some have only three. For instance the card for sickness also is titled Krankheid, Krankheit, maladie, and malatetia. Cards are hand watercolored. They are almost all in quite nice condition, with light soiling and wear. [...] Some of the cards include sickness, widow, thoughtful, matrimony, judge, fortune, present, lover, clergyman, unexpected joy, thief, jealousy, mournfulness, great joy, letter, pride, displeasure, constancy, voyage, child, money, house, amore, widower, soldier, desire, gaiety, sweet heart, hope, servant, message, enemy, death, society, misfortune, and more. Pick a card and choose your fate! Backs of cards are plain paper.
 

Little Hare

what a beautiful deck

x
 

OnePotato

Hello everyone.
Thanks for the comments.
Sorry for my slow response.

Hello Marina.
Just to clarify, the entry you have posted is the description from the ebay sale where I bought the deck. It's the same copy, not another. The seller didn't know any specifics.

Hello WolfyJames.
Thanks for all the info.
I guess it is a Sibilla Relative, from someplace German-speaking.
The subjects seem very similar, though I haven't had time to go through them all for a detailed comparison.
Most of the examples you posted look a little later, and appear to be repros of litho printed decks, (Cheaper to produce,) rather than engraved & hand colored. (More expensive to produce.)
I'll poke around some more, and see if I can find any other engraved examples.
 

OnePotato

Here is a closeup view of the "Money" card.

The original is really very small.

Two coins are dated, 1769 and 1810, (Or is it 1816?) and there are several unusual letters on some of the others.
Looks like "JJ" on one dated 1769, "J" on another, and "E" on another, and maybe "IW" on the one dated 1810.
Perhaps these might refer to the publisher or engraver?
Perhaps they're just decorative filler?

I have to do some more homework, but I've found several countries using a two-headed eagle on coinage around that time.

Anyway, it's harmless fun.
:D
 

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Debra

Thank heaven for scanners that can blow up the size of an image--how otherwise could such detail be visible? :) Amazing to think of someone engraving these.