Tarot Philatelique

I ordered this from R. Somerville and I'm waiting for it to come in the mail.

It is a deck by Frances Cartes and has postage stamps which are an interest of mine. Only 3 cards were shown at the Somerville site and they had no dimensions listed.

The cards looks thin and tall but not big--can someone who has this give me the dimensions of the cards please?

If you have other comments on the deck I would be interested.

Thanks

There are more cards on: http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/philatelic/ I don't know anything about the card size though.

mythos

2 1/4 inches by 4 1/4 inches approx. It's more of a game deck than tarot/fortune telling, but great fun if you like stamps. Mine came from Somerville too - 15 years ago.... Sigh. I am so OLD.

From my notes:

Double-ended trumps and upright aces feature French postage stamps showing sites and monuments; courts show stamps bearing works of art from the middle ages (spades), 15th century (diamonds), 17th century (hearts) and 19th century (clubs). The joker shows a stamp with a Chagall picture.

Interesting! I may get it for a friend who is big in stamps just for fun!
Ace

gregory said:

2 1/4 inches by 4 1/4 inches approx. It's more of a game deck than tarot/fortune telling, but great fun if you like stamps. Mine came from Somerville too - 15 years ago.... Sigh. I am so OLD..

Click to expand...

Okay thanks, they are bigger than I thought. I hesitated to buy them because of the pips but it will be a challenge to relate a story to those cards, which is always interesting.

Upon checking the scans at Aeclectic I see the very challenging 7 of Hearts.

Looks to me like some fleshy, palpating hearts got out of control on the freeway and caused 4-cars to have their fenders excised rather sharply, thus providing transport officials (and card readers) with a chance to study the way Polyxena sacrificed herself on Achilles tomb, and how that ties in with an increase of huge, electronic road signs on major highways. This of course also ties in with the J.G. Ballard story "The Subliminal Man" in which a guy gradually twigs to the fact that huge signs over highways are causing an increase in consumer spending.

Hah, and you thought it was just a game deck!

EEEEEEEEEEEK nightmare pending.

Secondary Possibilities

I just got these in the mail today, an 11-day wonder of shipping from Somerville.

I like these very much and the quality of the cards and finish is excellent. I was struck by the secondary possibilities of study with this--the exploration of artists and their work, and identification and study of the architecture and history of buildings and bridges--architecture is an interest of mine.

I thought of this deck in comparison with a Marseilles deck. I don't like the art in Marseilles decks, but the Tarot Philatelique has pips and an interesting theme and artwork. I also like the graphical design on the pips--very sharp, very modern, with a greater graphical impact for me.

I was also thinking that if I drew a pip card, I could pair it with a random historical stamp from my "Stamping Through Mathematics" book and increase the associative aspect and scope of study.

Just an update to say that this deck is pictured in the Tarock section of the new Encyclopedia of Tarot volume IV, on page 744.

It is really a nice deck--a little bit different and I love the stylized suit symbols on the pips.