Early 20th Century Tarot

[Tippyjane]

I recently found out that my Siberian grandmother had a deck of tarot cards. My sister remembers them but I don't. Does anybody know what deck (besides Rider-Waite) would have been around from 1900 to 1950 or so? I believe she may have brought them from Russia but she also could have bought them in Japan or Los Angeles. Thanks for any help you can give.

 

[Debra]

Mi-Shell's family is Siberian fortune-tellers, too. Her grandmother had a Soprafino deck.

 

[coredil]

I believe there is already a similar thread about this but I am too lazy to search

Anyway several decks printed in France have been in use during the first half of the twentieth century:
Ancien Tarot de Marseille (earlier named Le Tarot Italien) - Chartier, Marteau & Boudin 1930
Tarot astrologique de Muchery - Chartier, Marteau et Boudin, 1927
Tarot à fleurs de Chambéry (drawings from Hellé!) - Chartier, Marteau frères et Boudin, 1904
Tarot chinois (also named Tarot Allemand) - Lequart et Mignot, 1890
Grand Etteilla - B.P. Grimaud (several other older editions of the Etteilla have also been probably still in use too)
Le Tarot des imagiers du moyen age by Oswald Wirth - 1926

But I have no idea if these decks have been brought to Russia!

Best regards

 

[gregory]

You could show your sister this link and ask. I would bet on the Soprafino, myself. It may not (will not !) have been this edition, but the imagery in the one Mi-Shell's grandmother had is the same.

http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=66912

http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=24103

http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php?p=2973109&postcount=73 - and she posts more about it below that post - as her grandmother would have had it about the same time, what she says about what her grandmother said may also resonate.

 

[Mi-Shell]

Hi guys!
Me here!
And: WROOONG Grandmother!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
See, the thing with me - and a few others on this Earth is, I did have 2 Grandmothers
The one, that is/ was Gypsy from the Manoush Clan is my Mom's mom and she was a Gypsy shuvihana and Tarot reader working the circus with her beloved Soprafino deck.

My Siberian Gran, Aniany, the "baby catcher" and healer = my dad's mom and great Gran Ulaly Kham (the shaman of the clan) lived and worked in south central Siberia, in what is now Tuva. Our tribe lives north-east of Kysyl on the other side of the Yenisei River in the Taiga and looks after reindeer herds.....
There is nothing like Tarot - or even cards - When Divination is done, bones or entrails are used - and of course the drum Oracle with its many different pieces......

Siberia as a part of Russia was strictly communist until good old Gorbachev. Tarot decks were NOT available for sale anywhere and parcles comming in were opened, checked and all stuff not toting the party line was removed, destroyed and ifffff the "Bonzen" did not like what was send, the recipient was thrown into a labour camp for "subversive thoughts" and there he/ she was "re- educated" Maaany did not survive tat trick. Tarot and fortune telling was seen as bacward superstition, worse than religion and forbidden!!!!
So it is unlikely, that anything like a deck from France or Japan could get in - let's say before the 1970ties and then, when the BAM - railway was build and young people moved to Siberia and BAM workers an associates were allowed to have all kinds of "western stuff" and stuff from Moscow to keep them happy in the sodden /frozen muskeg huts they lived in.....
So concerning your deck it is the question, when = what year did the OP's gran live in Siberia and where!
Iffff she was someone having contact with Westerners, it is very likely she somehow got hold of a Tarot de Marseille, because French culture and music was not as much frowned upon than anything English speaking.
Good luck with the search!
By the way, it is fun to see my own oooooold threads dug up here again!
Nostalgia!!!!

 

[Tippyjane]

Siberia

My grandmother lived in Siberia pre-revolution. She came to the US via China and Japan in 1924. Landed in Everett WA and then came down to LA where there was a larger Russian colony. I'm not sure when exactly she got her cards and my sister is the only that has seen them-so I will show her the link you showed me. Thank you!