1830 Carlo Della Rocca Tarot

Yeah I must admit I've quite a fan of b/w tarot decks. If Meneghazzi had drawn the deck, I would have expected him to do it in his name, and announce that he was the author to enhance his rep.

So does Arnell Ando own the shop? As Meneghazzi has his tarot decks hosted on her web site? I always had trouble navigating the site to find the tarot decks page, and after a year I've gotten the hang of it. Yeah I did think about asking Cristina for some photographs. Cheers.

No, Arnell just manages the site for him along with her own.

Ah ok, thanks for the info. Nice review Sherryl!

Sherryl said:

This discussion prompted me to put a brief review of the deck on my blog with a few scans of cards. They didn't come out as large as I had hoped. [...]
http://tarot-heritage.com/2014/01/10/a-black-and-white-soprafino-deck/#more-1043

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Hi Sherryl, your scans are small but with good resolution. I found that by increasing the zoom feature in my browser I was able to have a good look at the cards.

I really like your site by the way! I enjoyed exploring it. Very well-written.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe Il Meneghello are in the business of creating faux staining on any of their historical reproductions and have only used it on one of their decks created by Menegazzi (Tarocco di Marsiglia Classico, 1987). If there is faux staining on this '1830' deck then I would expect it to be genuine patina/staining, whatever age it actually is.

A contributor at Tarotpedia has presumably taken the description from Il Meneghello and states that it is an 1830 deck created by Carlo Della Rocca.

http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Tarocco_Della_Rocca

Lee: Thank you so much for your kind words about my website.

Detox: I took another look at the staining (inclusions in the paper?) or whatever it is. It's also on the enclosed card that says "Edizioni Il Meneghello" so it's obviously a contemporary artifact, applied to modern card stock. The paper on the Classico Tarocco di Marsiglia almost looks like it was lightly marbled. On the black & white deck it looks like flecks and splotches.

The enclosed card says "Ispirato da carte incise da Della Rocca" (inspired by cards engraved by Della Rocca), which leaves no doubt that this is a modern rendering of the deck.

I have a partial deck printed in Milan in the mid- to late-1800s. The cards are very much in the style of Dotti, but I haven't been able to identify the printer. They are the same size, style and color scheme as Il Meneghello's Gioco di Tarocchi 1850. The card stock of the old deck is very smooth and stiff, while Il Meneghello's black and white cards are on rough card stock. There is almost no staining or aging on the old deck and the backing paper has been folded over to the front and glued down. It's such a good glue job that it's difficult to detect the border and none of the paper is starting to lift.

All of this says to me that the pencil-drawn deck is a modern rendering, and there isn't even an attempt to make the deck appear contemporary to Della Rocca.

Sorry; I did ask Arnell, who says:

I'm sorry but I don't know much about that one...all you wonderful Tarot scholars are more the experts about some of these great old classic decks... Way back when; I wanted to have a full catalog of il Meneghello's decks available online for their customers & fans and since Osvaldo Menegazzi didn't have his own site at the time, 'offered to make him one as best I could (I adore him so...) but he didn't have much info to share about the decks (doesn't speak English) so I don't necessarily know the history of all of them, except the few I've studied on my own. And I don't know much about that one, sorry. Please give everyone sharing the thread a warm hello from me.

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There is someone else I can ask... I will do.

Sherryl said:

This discussion prompted me to put a brief review of the deck on my blog with a few scans of cards. They didn't come out as large as I had hoped. I've sent the link to Arnell and asked her if she knows who the artist is.

http://tarot-heritage.com/2014/01/10/a-black-and-white-soprafino-deck/#more-1043

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Hi Sherryl, thank you for the link. I really enjoyed your review of the Della Rocca on your website (and here in post#2).

I think I have this deck, but I wonder if it is a different printing, because mine is number 53 of 300, not 350.

Also, after checking Tarotpedia and Arnell's website for dimensions and physical descriptions, I noticed that my deck is smaller (4.375 x 2.25 inches) than the 4.92 x 2.56 inches recorded at Tarotpedia. However, the card stock sounds like the same thing: a sturdy cream with a rough, linen-like finish.

I've attached a couple of photos.

Madame Squee said:

I think I have this deck, but I wonder if it is a different printing, because mine is number 53 of 300, not 350.

Also, after checking Tarotpedia and Arnell's website for dimensions and physical descriptions, I noticed that my deck is smaller (4.375 x 2.25 inches) than the 4.92 x 2.56 inches recorded at Tarotpedia. However, the card stock sounds like the same thing: a sturdy cream with a rough, linen-like finish.

Click to expand...

We have the same deck. My cards have the smaller dimensions you give, the box is nearly identical. If I said an edition of 350, it was either a typo or I was mis-remembering. My enclosed card is identical to yours and says 184/300.

Thanks for clearing this up.

Hm. The Tarocchino Lombardo also uses engraved designs by della Rocca, from 1835.

http://www.tarotgarden.com/database/images/l-decks/lombardocards.gif

And then there's the Soprafino in its many variants:

http://www.tarotgarden.com/database/images/c-decks/classicalcards.gif

According to - somewhere - it was originally created by Della Rocca in 1835 and has been copied many times. As we can see !

Why are we wondering who else was involved here - why should Menegazzi not have simply reproduced the historic pencilled original ? Am I missing something ? (I have emailed the curator of the Museo in Riola; maybe she can help, but still...)