Lee
I just received this deck, a modern version published by Dal Negro. It's a 62-card deck made specifically for gaming. Basically it's a standard tarot deck, with the 2 through 5 of each suit in the Minors removed.
The Majors are more or less standard tarot images, or at least standard enough for me to be able to identify them (the cards are untitled, and only some Majors have numbers, and they aren't the standard numbers for those cards), except for four cards -- for those four (standard tarot cards II, III, IV, V) there are images which I can't match to the standard tarot images. I'm sure this deck follows a pre-1910 pattern, so I'm posting in this forum in hopes that someone here could help me.
You can see some cards of the deck here (and this is also where I bought it):
http://www.houseoftarot.com/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=13&products_id=362
Please note that the site is mistaken when it identifies it as a 78-card deck. It's only 62 cards.
One of the unidentifiable Majors can be seen on that page, go to the card scans and click to enlarge. It's the middle card in the top row.
The other three cards show:
A woman with hoop earrings who holds three arrows.
And the next card's image is used for two cards:
The same hoop-earringed woman but this time holding a spear.
To reiterate, these four cards must be the Papess, Empress, Emperor, and Pope, since all the other Majors are accounted for. Of course, it's possible that there is no real correlation to be found.
If anyone would like to see the three unidentified images (the fourth is, as I said, visible on the website above), let me know and I'll scan and post them.
It's an interesting deck. It's very utilitarian, very playing-card-ish. Yet, there is an esoteric touch -- the World card shows Hermes, complete with winged feet, winged hat, and caduceus, standing on a sphere divided into four parts. The deck comes with a booklet in Italian that only discusses, as far as I can make out, rules of gaming.
Thanks in advance --
Lee
The Majors are more or less standard tarot images, or at least standard enough for me to be able to identify them (the cards are untitled, and only some Majors have numbers, and they aren't the standard numbers for those cards), except for four cards -- for those four (standard tarot cards II, III, IV, V) there are images which I can't match to the standard tarot images. I'm sure this deck follows a pre-1910 pattern, so I'm posting in this forum in hopes that someone here could help me.
You can see some cards of the deck here (and this is also where I bought it):
http://www.houseoftarot.com/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=13&products_id=362
Please note that the site is mistaken when it identifies it as a 78-card deck. It's only 62 cards.
One of the unidentifiable Majors can be seen on that page, go to the card scans and click to enlarge. It's the middle card in the top row.
The other three cards show:
A woman with hoop earrings who holds three arrows.
And the next card's image is used for two cards:
The same hoop-earringed woman but this time holding a spear.
To reiterate, these four cards must be the Papess, Empress, Emperor, and Pope, since all the other Majors are accounted for. Of course, it's possible that there is no real correlation to be found.
If anyone would like to see the three unidentified images (the fourth is, as I said, visible on the website above), let me know and I'll scan and post them.
It's an interesting deck. It's very utilitarian, very playing-card-ish. Yet, there is an esoteric touch -- the World card shows Hermes, complete with winged feet, winged hat, and caduceus, standing on a sphere divided into four parts. The deck comes with a booklet in Italian that only discusses, as far as I can make out, rules of gaming.
Thanks in advance --
Lee