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German Lenormand 1846 / Spiel der Hoffnung 1799

Posted: 07 Jun 2012, 16:49
by Huck
An interesting collection had been done in a thread at Aeclectic ..

Petit Lenormand history
http://tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=175987

... to the German Lenormand, a deck with 36 cards, which was also object to DDD Wicked Pack of Cards (p. 141). DDD note c. 1850 for it, and they speak of an earlier game "Spiel der Hoffnung", found by Hoffmann, who dated it to c. 1800.
Early this year I made some research on it with the help of books.google.com and found an advertisement of the Bieling Verlag in 1799, which offered the game between others:

http://tarotforum.net/showthread.php?p= ... ost3054424
http://books.google.de/books?id=kU9CAAA ... 22&f=false

I took the announced game "Spiel der Hoffnung" as made by an anonymous, however, it seems, that I was not careful enough ...

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... cause somebody else (I think, "IheartTarot" at Aeclectic, Helen Riding in reality) found under the name "Hechtels, J.K." a person "Johann Kaspar Hechtel" (without -s), and this seems to have been indeed the author of the game, as he was also the author of the 3 other mentioned works. Helen published here ...

http://mywingsofdesireblog.blogspot.de/
http://mywingsofdesireblog.blogspot.de/ ... chtel.html
http://mywingsofdesireblog.blogspot.de/ ... story.html

Well, that's a nice success and she found also some papers and cards of the earliest version of the "Spiel der Hoffnung" in the British Museum:


http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/s ... umpages=10

Looking at the state of the momentary research, I see, that the works of another author with similar interests as Hechtel preceded the works of Hechtel (in the advertising of the publisher Bieling) ... I identified the author "Gütle J. K." with "Johann Conrad (or Konrad) Gütle" (though perhaps it's not clear, as there are other authors with the name "Gütle") ...

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About this Johann Conrad Gütle I found a biography ...
http://naa.net/ain/personen/show.asp?ID=127
Johann Konrad Gütle,
Experimentalphysiker, Hersteller von Elektrisiermaschinen und Pionier beim Bau von Blitzableitern.

* 25.3.1747 in Schwabach ; † 18.10.1827 in Nürnberg.

Vater: Johann Friedrich Gütlein.
1. Heirat: Sophia Magdalena Kern (?-1782).
2. Heirat: 1788 Antonia Steingruber (?-1808), Enkelin des bekannten Ansbacher Baumeisters Johann David Steingruber (1702-1787).
Kinder: Aus 1. Ehe ging der spätere Uhrmacher Friedrich Christoph Gütle hervor.

Lebenslauf und Wirken:

Siegfried Kett schrieb zu Gütle: „Johann Conrad Gütle war ein Tausendsassa, der die verschiedensten Professionen wahrgenommen hat. Gelernt hat er als Buchbinder und Futteralmacher und sich im Laufe der Zeit autodidaktisch Kenntnisse in Physik und Mathematik angeeignet. Etwa ab 1780 war er als reisender Experimentator (Schausteller) unterwegs, wobei er auch schon Elektrisiermaschinen und Zubehör verkaufte und reparierte und nebenbei Kranke durch Elektrisieren heilte. In Heilbronn schalt man ihn deshalb als Betrüger. In Regensburg nennt ihn die ortsansässige Zeitung einen „hochfürstlich-ansbachischen Mechanicus.“ (Als ein Mechanicus galt damals nur ein sehr geschickter Handwerker, der die verschiedensten Materialien bearbeiten konnte und auch als Tüftler sehr erfinderisch sein musste. Christoph Gottlieb Murr zählt in seiner Beschreibung der Reichstadt Nürnberg von 1802 unter der Rubrik „Jetzt lebende Künstler in Nürnberg“ neben den Musikern, Malern, Kupferstechern und Bildhauern auch die „Mechaniker und physikalischen Künstler“ auf, zu denen er den seit 1788 in Nürnberg lebenden Gütle rechnet.) Bekannt ist Gütle vor allem als Produzent von Elektrisiermaschinen, als Trommler für den Blitzschutz und als Privatlehrer für Naturwissenschaften. In nicht wenigen Orten Frankens (auch in Nürnberg) hat er die ersten Blitzableiter eingerichtet und genoss dabei einen hervorragenden Ruf. In die internationale Literatur eingegangen ist er mit einer „elektrischen Lampe“, bei der mit Hilfe eines Elektrophors eine Gaslampe gezündet worden ist. Geschrieben hat er auch sehr viel, alleine die Bayerische Staatsbibliothek hat in ihrem Bestand 24 verschiedene Titel von ihm. Von Nürnberg aus betrieb er einen regen Versandhandel und stellte als ein „in der Chemie Beflissener“ zudem Reinigungs-, Schönheits- und Haarwuchsmittel her. Sogar der Dichter Jean Paul erwähnt in seinem Werk ein Haarfärbemittel von Gütle, mit dem seine weißen Haare wieder schwarz geworden sein sollen.“ Von Gütle hat sich eine aus Gips gefertigte waagrechte Tischsonnenuhr erhalten, auch veröffentlichte er 1797 ein Buch zur „Unterhaltung für Liebhaber der Sonnenuhrkunst“.
This was a man with a lot of phantasy and inventions and many publications. Although his major interest had been in physics, it's easily possible, that he was also interested in games (and Nuremberg was traditionally a city for inventors and game producers).
We have the situation, that publisher Bieling necessarily knew Hechtel and also Gütle, and somehow it's probable, that Gütle and Hechtel ALSO knew each other (actually it would be strange, if not). And in Hechtel's biography we find ...

http://books.google.de/books?id=tDpKAAA ... el&f=false
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... that also Hechtel wrote about physics.

Further it's possibly of interest, that a protestant preacher with some literary interests wrote "Ein Denkmal für J.K Hechtel" ("A memorial for J.K. Hechtel") in the year 1800, so short after the tragical death of Hechtel in his 29th year.
No Preview at http://books.google.de/books?id=yiEPcgA ... edir_esc=y
Valentin Karl Veillodter, the preacher, ...
http://de.wikisource.org/wiki/ADB:Veill ... entin_Karl
... was only 2 years older than Hechtel, it might well be, that they were friends in their youth. If there's an interest in biographical details, this would be a place, where one could look.

**************************

The game "Spiel der Hoffnung" has led to the production of the Petit Leormand, and according DDD this happened c. 1850. Some German research (? possibly "Lilith") ... http://www.lilith-blog.de/?m=200811 ... has lead to the insight, that there was something in 1846:

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http://books.google.de/books?id=JVE0AAA ... r.&f=false
Page 254

I checked books.google.com in this context and found advertisements, also of 1846 ...


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http://books.google.de/books?id=sEFDAAA ... 22&f=false
from Passau (Bavaria), early in February 1846
*************

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from Passau (Bavaria) same book ... one month later, the Lenormand had a quick distribution in Passau

*************

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from Munich ... 1/2 year later

"Chator" is given as the author of the Petit Lenormand, a "heir of Lenormand", as the description says. Chator is a very rare French name ... between 1891-1816 existed 8 persons with this name, one of them in Central-Paris. Possibly "Chator" is a pseudonym, or the result of an error through abbreviation of an address.

August Reiff is a minor publisher, in 1844 he made an address book of Coblenz. In 1846 there is another text published about an exploration in America, written by a Baron.

The major book trader seems to be Hölscher (mentioned in the Lilith-note), who got the Petit Lenormand on commission. Another person with the surname Reiff (Johann Joseph Reiff) cooperated as author with a printer Hölscher about 20 years before.

The Petit Lenormand reached Passau (with some greater distance from Coblenz or Koblenz) early in the year 1846 (February), so possibly one has to calculate, that the Petit Lenormand was produced 1845.

Well, that's the momentary state of research.

Here a poem of Johann Joseph Reiff (the father), who wrote mainly theater plays:

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******

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... :-) ... it's about the "nice Rhein"

Re: German Lenormand 1846 / Spiel der Hoffnung 1799

Posted: 08 Jun 2012, 03:23
by Mary Greer
Thanks Huck. It's amazing to start seeing all this getting pieced together. Helen Riding summarized on the aeclectic history site a discussion we had of how the 15th century Italian Biribissi game may have led to the Spiel der Hoffnung (under Lenormand in the History section) and to modern day Bilderlotto. It also turns out that early tasseomancy emblem descriptions (c. 1860) focused on the same images as are found in the Lenomand deck.

Now, if we can just find an 18th century German cartomancy tradition in which Clubs (Acorns?) are the worst suit, with Spades being good, and Diamonds being mixed (taking a gamble with big payoffs or losses), then we'll have another piece of the puzzle. These are the associations found between image and cards in the Lenormand deck.

Re: German Lenormand 1846 / Spiel der Hoffnung 1799

Posted: 08 Jun 2012, 12:25
by Bernice
Mary Greer wrote:.................

Now, if we can just find an 18th century German cartomancy tradition in which Clubs (Acorns?) are the worst suit, with Spades being good, and Diamonds being mixed (taking a gamble with big payoffs or losses), then we'll have another piece of the puzzle. These are the associations found between image and cards in the Lenormand deck.
Hi Mary. Going back a few years now, I never did find the book that stated Clubs were 'bad' and Spades were 'good'. I finally concluded that it got moved out into the barn - buried in a box (or the dead Flatley Dryer) under junk. I can't search myself and dare not ask my SO without knowing its' title. But great to know that there are other leads.

Bee x

Re: German Lenormand 1846 / Spiel der Hoffnung 1799

Posted: 08 Jun 2012, 15:46
by Huck
I found at ...
http://books.google.de/books?id=IZ6cGZG ... &q&f=false
... with thanks to Helen this Snippet ...

Image


... according which the publisher Reiff (likely August Reiff) not only distributed the Petit Lenormand, but also a Lenormand deck with 54 cards, so likely the Grand Lenormand, which according DDD p. 138-141 was made in 1845. Reiff mentioned a "Gräfin (German for "Countess") von ****** ", DDD notes a "Comtesse de ******* " as the inventor and the publication address 46 Rue Vivienne.
The Snippet is from a book catalog made in 1848, but it presents both products with an "846", which means, that they should have been appeared at the market in the year 1846.

It was called "Le grand jeu de societé ... etc." ...

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... Gallica offers book 4 (of 5), which accompanied the production of the deck.
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From this the system looks complex. Somehow it uses in this 4th part 60 gods, and each god gives 12 answers ... how this might relates to 54 divination cards, is for the moment a riddle.

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Here's a later remake:
http://a.trionfi.eu/WWPCM/decks03/d01079/d01079.htm

The deck was printed in colour lithogaphie by "Engelmann et Graf" ... the names sound German, which in this case might be of interest. Godefroy Engelmann was the founder ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godefroy_Engelmann
... he studied a shorter time in Munich, where the "Spiel der Hoffnung" might have been well known (and where the first distribution of Petit Lenormand with Spiel-der-Hoffnung-motifs is documented for 1846). But Godefroy Engelmann was dead in 1839.

1843: death of Lenormand, which opens a new market
1845: A complicated production with 5 connected books in Paris
Somehow the reinterpretation of the Spiel der Hoffnung as a playing card deck (which went via Coblenz)
February 1846: The deck with some interpretation text is ready for sale in Bavaria (where it has a market, cause the motifs should have been known there)

That's not much time ...

***************

The "Spiel der Hoffnung" is also given as "jeu de esperance" ... I remember dark. Yes, DDD, p. 141.

A "Jeu de esperance" existed already in 1709/10, here ...

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http://books.google.de/books?id=hKjIHsI ... 22&f=false

Added later: No, it is not the same game. Its a dice game.
http://books.google.de/books?id=Cqk_AAA ... 22&f=false

Re: German Lenormand 1846 / Spiel der Hoffnung 1799

Posted: 08 Jun 2012, 19:32
by Mary Greer
Bernice wrote:Hi Mary. Going back a few years now, I never did find the book that stated Clubs were 'bad' and Spades were 'good'. I finally concluded that it got moved out into the barn - buried in a box
Bee, how tantalizing. Here's hoping that you or your SO get into a cleaning out streak and come upon it! For some reason I keep thinking the answer to the card-image connection of the Spiel der Hoffnung is out there.

Re: German Lenormand 1846 / Spiel der Hoffnung 1799

Posted: 09 Jun 2012, 08:55
by Bernice
Hi Mary,

You have pm re. suit of Clubs.

Bee :)

Re: German Lenormand 1846 / Spiel der Hoffnung 1799

Posted: 09 Jun 2012, 17:11
by Helen
Das Spiel der Hoffnung game instructions:

The British Museum has advised that the original German game instructions will be made publicly available on their website within a few weeks. Tarot Professionals has also made an English translation done by Steph Myriel Es-Tragon for the book The New Lenormand now due out in 2013 available on The New Lenormand website.

Re: German Lenormand 1846 / Spiel der Hoffnung 1799

Posted: 09 Jun 2012, 19:27
by Huck
Helen wrote:Das Spiel der Hoffnung game instructions:

The British Museum has advised that the original German game instructions will be made publicly available on their website within a few weeks. Tarot Professionals has also made an English translation done by Steph Myriel Es-Tragon for the book The New Lenormand now due out in 2013 available on The New Lenormand website.
Welcome Helen. welcome

I see, your group made good work in this question to raise public interest ... :-)

Re: German Lenormand 1846 / Spiel der Hoffnung 1799

Posted: 09 Jun 2012, 19:32
by Helen
Huck wrote:Welcome Helen. welcome

I see, your group made good work in this question to raise public interest ... :-)
Thanks Huck, and thanks for the tip that led to Herr Hechtel. :)

I am a group of one BTW, fortunately I have found a few others with the same interests in cyberspace. :)

Re: German Lenormand 1846 / Spiel der Hoffnung 1799

Posted: 10 Jun 2012, 01:00
by Huck
Helen wrote: Thanks Huck, and thanks for the tip that led to Herr Hechtel. :)
I am a group of one BTW, fortunately I have found a few others with the same interests in cyberspace. :)
Well, I saw this ...

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... and thought, it must be "somehow" a group ... suddenly some massive English interest in the German Lenormand ... :-) ... if this is the major interest of the project.
During our longer researches I was once astonished to find out, that in Germany this Lenormand version possibly has similar much interest as Tarot.
One minor TV in Germany had or has a nasty cardreader show to earn money in a cruel, very insensible manner and I think more than 50% of the readers used Lenormand, not Tarot. In contrast Lilith, from which you got the note of 1846, who made long time an important Lenormand Internet Forum, is quite another character.
Mary Greer wrote:Thanks Huck. It's amazing to start seeing all this getting pieced together. Helen Riding summarized on the aeclectic history site a discussion we had of how the 15th century Italian Biribissi game may have led to the Spiel der Hoffnung (under Lenormand in the History section) and to modern day Bilderlotto. It also turns out that early tasseomancy emblem descriptions (c. 1860) focused on the same images as are found in the Lenomand deck.

Now, if we can just find an 18th century German cartomancy tradition in which Clubs (Acorns?) are the worst suit, with Spades being good, and Diamonds being mixed (taking a gamble with big payoffs or losses), then we'll have another piece of the puzzle. These are the associations found between image and cards in the Lenormand deck.
Well, I think, that the research of the content of the Spiel der Hoffnung should start with knowledge about the first edition. DDD give only some short explanations. It's a racing game, and the cells (or at least a part of them) should have been defined by an accompanying text. The racing game is the major game, and the divination is only second use and one has to use 32 cards only ... this likely means, that the author took his information "from elsewhere".
DDD describes:
"From elsewhere" likely means "from Gütle", cause this man isn't far. Gütle (52 in 1799) is much older and more experienced than Hechtel (28), and it might be well so, that Gütle led Hechtel to literary activities and to the publisher Bieling.

This article ...
http://www.fabrikmuseum-roth.de/infomat ... 021203.pdf
... tells the story of a mill in a location "Roth" 33 km South of Nürnberg. In 1496 it was allowed to use it for the production of brass (German: Messing), beside its usual functions. Earlier, in 1443, brass production was already recorded in Roth. In 1772 mill and brass production was taken by a Lorenz Hechtel, and both went after his death in 1809 to the hands of his son Georg Hechtel. In 1830 the mill burnt down, was rebuild in 1832 and in 1854 sold to other hands.
It seems plausible to assume Lorenz Hechtel as the father of the "Messingfabrik" owner Johann Kaspar Hechtel, and Georg Hechtel as the brother.

From a private note (ancestor research) I get ...
http://forum.ahnenforschung.net/showthr ... 85&page=11
Johann Georg Hechtel
geb. 1718 gest. 1793
markgräfisch Ansbacher Bürger, hochfürstl. Müllermeister und markgräfischer
Kaufmann auf der Weihersmühle
verheiratet mit Kunigunde
Kinder:
Heinrich Hechtel
Lorenz Hechtel
... so already the grandfather was a "Müllermeister"(mill-master) in Ansbach. DDD recognized an "Ansbacher pattern" for the German playing cards in the "Spiel der Hoffnung", but this means not too much, as the Ansbacher pattern was rather far spread.
Ansbach is in about 50 km to Roth and about 50 km distance to Nuremberg. In Ansbach lived also Johann David Steingruber ...
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_David_Steingruber
... who had worked in Ansbach for more than 50 years. Starting as the son of a brick mason in low position, he later became architect and responsible for many buildings, especially in Ansbach.

Well, Gütle married in second marriage (1788, one year after the death of the great archtect) the grand daughter Antonia of Steingruber. This marriage seems to have changed his life: In his biography it's noted "In Regensburg nennt ihn die ortsansässige Zeitung einen „hochfürstlich-ansbachischen Mechanicus.“ .. which seems to say, that they connected him (then) to the city Ansbach.
Gütle was born in Schwabach: 17 km to Nuremberg, 12 km to Roth, 40 km to Ansbach. Then he married Antonia after the death of his first wife in 1782 (a son of this marriage became later a clockmaker) and Antonia seems to have been the key to his further activities ...

Following is from:
Nürnbergisches Gelehrten-Lexicon oder Beschreibung aller Nürnbergischen Gelehrten beyderley Geschlechtes nach Ihrem Leben, Verdiensten und Schrifften:
zur Erweiterung der gelehrten Geschichtskunde und Verbesserung vieler darinnen vorgefallenen Fehler. Erster Supplementband von A - G
Georg Andreas Will, Christian Conrad Nopitsch
Schüpfel, 1802 - 448 Seiten
http://books.google.de/books?id=zDhKAAA ... &q&f=false

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13 years before 1802 (so c. 1789) Gütle goes with new marriage and Antonia to Nuremberg. After a single publication in 1779 he now (1789) becomes an active author. In "blue" are marked works, with which he attempts to amuse with the help of tricks based on physical or chemical phenomena.

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In "green" are marked works, which are of interest for us, games (often with cards) and also some text about divination. This "green" period started in 1795.

So there's some plausibility, that Gütle and the Hechtel family knew each other already from Ansbach. And Johann Caspar Hechtel took likely his knowledge of divination technology from Gütle ... or from Gütle's wife Antonia. Cause without Antonia the husband Gütle likely wouldn't have been a big author. Divination technology was more a female heme.

Well, the strings of Hechtel and Gütle run together in Ansbach. But Ansbach is not only a city, but also a (small) state with same relationship to the royal Hohenzollern in Brandenburg and Prussia.

Ansbach



Fürstentum Ansbach



http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%BCrstentum_Ansbach
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansbach