A most unusual Bateleur

http://www.tarot-society-jp.net/equinox/tejinashi.jpg

I can't find any other cards. Everything is in Japanese. I can't even find a link that looks like an e-mail that I can use to write to them.

From the checkered border, it looks like the Tarot of Paris by Grimaud, an OOP deck that used to be carried by US Games.

Found it here: http://www.spiritone.com/~filipas/Masquerade/Reviews/paris.html. [scroll down the page a bit to see images] That checkerboard is a distinctive clue.

Just read yesterday (!) in my new "Book of Fools" (Brian Williams) that in early decks the Magician was sometimes illustrated as a merchant or vendor, as it seems in this card. This deck is wonderful and am wishing hard that it comes back into print some time soon!

[fixed url!]

Oops! The url above didn't go through till I took the period off the end of it.

The author of that review is a member here.....

Neat cards!!