Of course, there is a rich history to playing cards, somewhat concomitant with tarot, but mostly we just like them 'cause they's weird.

I bought the last copy of a transformation deck for $5.71 and free shipping (there is a heaven specifically for those who love transformation playing cards) called State by State: Picture Playing Cards of the USA. There are not too many of these transformation lovelies in-print, they are more popular in Britain than over here. I await the post for this happy deck to arrive.

Some other visuals from my archive. My one regret is that I missed out on Pete Wood's fantastic 2000 Pips and the Wild! deck, both transformation decks. Sigh.

I thought I'd discuss historical facsimile playing card decks since that might be of interest to history buffs. It's too bad there isn't a current (and affordable) edition of the Mamluk cards.

I think some people here might already have the Ambraser Hofämterspiel Playing Cards that Piatnik published with a book in English and German.
The Hofämterspiel was one of the earliest card games on record, and is preserved in its entirety with all forty-eight cards intact. These cards are exact facsimiles (including worn edges) of cards found at Ambras castle in Innsbruck, Austria from some time in the 16th century. The cards could be older than that and seem to depict older fashions in some cards.

The cards feature a standard hierarchical set of courtiers and people in the royal household like marshals and chamberlains, archer, falconer, trumpeter, huntsmen, purveyors, ladies in waiting, and other staff like craftsmen (tailors, potters), barbers, messengers all sorts of people that would have been at court.

The Kings and Queens have heraldic shields bearing coats of arms for their kingdoms: France, Germany, Bohemia, and Hungary. The cards are blank on the back.

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One of the reasons I liked Paul Huson's tarot deck Dame Fortune's Wheel, was because he used historical titles for the court cards that have been part of playing card history. Different decks often have different people depicted but it's quite fascinating to compare them. There is something about Roland, perhaps it's my interest in the Camino, or the romance of chivalry, but I like to see him turn up on cards. Ditto for Hector as I'm keen on the Trojan War.

Harry Margary in the UK has some reproduction decks too but I didn't buy his reproduction of the glorious South Sea Bubble cards when I had the money, which is a regret. There is a whole chapter on this early economic disaster of the 18th century in the (still in-print) mid-19th century book Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. The book refers to this card deck and has a sample of it. To have the card deck would have been great.


This is the Dames de France deck, now distributed by Grimaud. I absolutely love this deck, it's a very high quality pack and the courts are beautiful.


This is a facsimile deck based on a deck edition published in 1816. The indices were added by Frances Cartes for this edition.

Gustave Houbigant was also know as Armand-Gustave Houbigant [1790-1863], and was the son of Jean-François Houbigant the famous French perfumer. He was well known as an artist but succeeded his father in the family business without regret apparently, and was a Legion of Honor awardee, and for several years, the mayor of Nogent-sur-Oise, the town where he had taken up residence and in which he died.

The courts feature Henri IV, Crillon, Jeanne D'Albret, Karolus Magnus, Hildegarde, Roland, Saunct (sic) Loys, Blanche de Castille, Sire de Joinville, Bayard, Marguerite de Valois, and Francois II.

The title card explains in French that the 12 court cards were created and presented on the occasion of the marriage of the Duc de Berry and appeared the first time for the tables at court. The original deck is preserved in Paris at the Bibliothèque Nationale.

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The other one I find fascinating is the Jeu de Cartes Revolutionnaires by Editions Dusserre

This is a facsimile of a deck that the Count of Saint Simon, a French philosopher and economist, designed. They were manufactured by Jaume and Dugourg in 1793. The Geniuses replaced the Kings, the Liberties the Queens, and the Equalities the Knaves. The monarchy was definitely not politically correct at the time. Republished from the original which is conserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris.

Here is the breakdown of the courts. The idealism expressed is rather haunting given the excesses and shame of The Terror. I read an interesting book on The Terror which highlighted factions around the country and the horrible things they did, not just in Paris but in Marseille for instance, as well as other hamlets which were so different than Paris, with different language dialects, that they might have been other countries. Endlessly fascinating and truly frightening. I think this is why I bought the cards, it's a reminder of how twisted human philosophy can become, and how anarchy is not an ideal one should wish for.


Revolution Cards 1


Valet, Dame, Roi
Knave, Queen, King
Equality, Liberty, Genius

Spades: V - Égalité de Rang (Puissanbe); D - Liberté de la Presse (Lumière); R - Génie des Arts (Gout)

Hearts: V - Égalité de Devoirs (Séburité); D - Liberté des Cultes (Fraternité); R - Génie de la Guerre (Force)


RevolutionCards 2

Valet, Dame, Roi
Equality, Liberty, Genius

Diamonds: V - Égalité de Couleurs (Courage); D - Liberté des Professions (Industrie); R - Génie du Commerce (Richesse)

Clubs: V - Égalité de Droits (Justice); D - Liberté du Mariage (Pudeur); R - Génie de la Paix (Prospérité)

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The last one I thought might be interesting to you is the Jeu Henri IV by Editions Dusserre. I love the hand drawn pips on this and the ugly courts are actually lovely and have much historical value. I was keen that they show Dido who is a favourite of mine due to my interest in the Trojan War and aftermath. Also Elizabeth the 1st of England is in this pack, which is nice for my Tudor interests:

Court cards are Roi, Dame, Valet and are dressed in costumes from the era of Henri IV, King of France from 1589 to 1610.

Henri was the first King of the Bourbon dynasty, and although a benevolent ruler, was assassinated in 1610 while riding in his coach, when a religious zealot stabbed him. King Henri was a Huguenot (Protestant Reformed Church of France) in a country filled with Catholics, which unfortunately led to the regicide.

He had six children and eight illegitimate children. His daughter Henrietta Maria, became the wife of Charles I of England and thus Queen of England. She was the mother of two kings, Charles II and James II, and was grandmother to both William and Mary and Queen Anne. One other daughter Elizabeth was Queen of Spain, and his son ruled France as Louis XIII.

The original deck is conserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris and was printed circa 1600. It is attributed to V.G. Cartier.

cadla,

I'm picturing you as a man dressed in black, with a hat shadowing his face, standing at a crossroads. In otherwords: Get Thee Behind Me Satan!

Tempting, tempting, tempting. Do I need another collection? Another addition? This is one of those things that I sort of want to avert my eyes and keep telling myself "Nothing special here... move on, move on".

Sigh.

These decks are SO beautiful. I would LOVE to get a copy of the Ambraser Hofämterspiel Playing Cards. Wow.

I have three decks of playing cards that I love. Two are the Provot deck by Jean-Claude Flornoy... One hand stenciled, the other the remarkably beautiful mass market version (Friends, if you love the Noblet and Dodal, make sure you get the Provot, it's just lovely). I also have a deck very dear to my heart, the Oscar Wilde playing cards which feature scenes and characters from his life and his works.
http://www.guntheranderson.com/cards/dec96/wilde.htm

But yeah, I would really love to start getting some of these historical playing card decks. I'm also very interested in the Lenormand and Sibilla decks, and would love to start collecting those. Do you have these as well?

Thanks for your very enviable presentation, Cadla!

My playing card collection consists of boutique/tourist decks (I try to buy a few everywhere I go) and regional patterns, as well as a few dozen English standard patterns, just for playing games.

I am very jealous of Cadla's Hofämterspiel; a couple of years ago playingcardsales.com had one for sale, at £65, and I baulked. I opted to get books with this discretionary money instead. But I'm sure they can still be found.

Yes, I balked at the price too. However, I got a settlement from my former employer before I left,and I decided to spend it on art and history books and odd decks that I would normally never be able to afford. I tended to spend the money on such things instead of more ephemeral restaurant meals or vacations. Just me I guess. I wanted to lift myself up rather than focus on the negative, what better way to do that than buying art and books that you can look at and use over and over?

Oh, the Oscar Wilde deck--I love Oscar and feel so dejected at the way he ended up--for nothing really--it's a tragedy--desperately wanted that deck Robert but couldn't justify the price. I bought Richard Ellman's wonderful biography of Oscar and dipped into it a bit but must read the whole thing.

I find some of the regional patterns at Somerville very enticing--nearly bought a German one to make small Coptic-stitched books from. A wonderful moderator at AT once traded with me and sent me a tourist playing card deck from her location along with some tourist postcards for my postcard oracle. I also have one of the Abbeys of Britain (most in ruins, alas, I could strangle Henry VIII) which is a tourist deck but I love it. I traded for the Nostradamus cards with her which of course are all Cesar Ripa's Iconologia--gold mine.

I have five Lenormands. Three regular, one is the Tarot Lenormand, and one I made one of my own design using vector clip art (much of it modified extensively) and I found that a good exercise for remembering the symbolism. I called it The Illustrative Lenormand Oracle and printed it for myself on my inkjet. I used a lot of line drawings and antique etchings for the backgrounds as well as vector illustrations. Here's a large shot but greatly compressed:


The one Sibilla I have is by Dal Negro--the Misteri della Sibilla which has lovely watercolours--a real keeper.

I collect postcards too--have about 900 or more split into three oracles and a couple odd collections.

I feel the collection thing has to be about passion and what you're truly interested in. It's not about a number or comparison or competition. For instance, Pen's Mystic Rubaiyat was one I deck had to have when I had this money because my Uncle used to recite the Rubaiyat and it had great meaning to me. It's like gold to me that deck, and he has since died so it's something I'm glad I bought when I had this settlement money.

If you ever get the Hofämterspiel it would make a good study.

Wow! Your Lenormand is really lovely! Great that you worked with vectors too! There is something about having to work through a card when planning a design that forces you to own it and interpret it, it provides a level of intimacy that I don't think you can discover any other way.

I participated in the AT collaborative Lenormand, and created two cards. The first was created with vectors in Illustrator... a requirement was to include the assigned playing card in the images as well, so for "Flowers", which has the Queen of Spades assigned to it, I used a playing card as the base and redrew the image with tweaks to bring in a more floral sense to it:


I also made the card for "Scythe", whose assigned card is the Jack of Diamonds. And I used Flornoy's Provot deck for the card in her hand! This was, obviously, built with a combination of Poser, a 3D program where I assembled everything and built the environment, and Photoshop for touches...

Long time ago i begin made tarot, but only made two cards. I need sad this in Spanish, sorry, its to long for me.

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Introduction:

El loco, la muerte, los enamorados… las cartas del Tarot siempre me han parecido fascinantes, al igual que los magos persas, los glifos mayas, los caballitos de mar, los hornos de leña, el musgo, las sirenas, las encrucijadas, los laberintos y los acertijos. Sin embargo, quizá estén desaprovechadas. Al parecer la gente tan solo las consulta para resolver pequeños asuntos cotidianos, como el devenir de un romance, la evolución de una enfermedad o el porvenir laboral. ¡Ja! Eso me parece PATÉTICO. De todos es sabido que para esos menesteres funcionan mucho mejor la lectura de higadillos de ciempiés, la aspiración de polvos de café o, incluso, el quirolegañismo astral.

Tras arduas investigaciones emprendidas un sinfín de segundos atrás, aproximadamente harán ya unos 3 ó 4 minutos, creo haber encontrado el quid de la cuestión, el meollo del asunto y la raíz del problema, así como un mechero azul, pequeño, de la marca BIC, que pensaba perdido ya irremediablemente entre los despojos y ruinas de mi mesa. El problema, como ya habrá adivinado el lector avezado (aunque no por eso menos experimentado), se encuentra en la rutina, cadena y metástasis de la imaginación, en la que han caído adivinadores y adivinandos a fuerza de emplear siempre los mismos arcanos.

Es por ello que yo, Marcóticos I, hijo de mi madre, nieto de mi abuela y merodeador habitual de la discoteca Ohm, he decidido diseñar unas nuevas cartas del Tarot acordes con los nuevos y aciagos tiempos que nos ha tocado vivir. Nace así el Neotarot de Marcóticos, que usted lo disfrute.

First triumph - The Dream
Interpretación

Derecha

Efectivamente, como decía Goya en su grabado refiréndose a los que se oponían al avance de las ideas de los ilustrados franceses, el sueño de la razón produce monstruos. Esta carta es fatal. Nos anuncia el inminente letargo del menos común de todos los sentidos: el sentido común. A lo largo de la historia, esta carta nos ha vaticinado la locura colectiva que se adueña de poblaciones y naciones enteras para embarcarlas en los mares del horror y la destrucción. Amorosos padres de familia que hoy acunan a sus hijos mañana irán a la guerra donde solo les espera la muerte y la destrucción. La gente se volverá nazionalista, patriota, defensores de la fe y el honor, las personas se volverán militares… En fin, si te sale esta carta más te vale ir comprando un billete para las Islas Reunión.

Invertida

Efectivamente, como decía Goya en su grabado refiréndose a los fanáticos de la ilustración, el sueño de la razón, produce monstruos. Aunque no anticipa acontecimientos tan terribles como cuando sale derecha, el polo de esta carta tampoco resulta de buen agüero. Siglos atrás vimos en qué degeneraba el convencimiento de que la razón se debe anteponer a todas las cosas: el terror jacobino, el terror comunista, el terror nazi, los que defienden la razón de estado e, incluso, el relativismo cultural. Esta carta es el cuervo que grazna el desembarco de quienes se olvidan que toda vida presente tiene derecho a seguir con vida, incluso la de la persona más abyecta que podamos imaginar (música de fondo, Beethoven). En fin, no nos pongamos estupendos que esto me está quedando de un cursi espeluznante y resumamos diciendo que si sale esta carta invertida la situación también se anticipa complicada. El único antídoto, sexo y amor a raudales.

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Second triumph - The Defeat
Interpretación (igual derecha que izquierda)

Hacia 1482, el genial Leonardo da Vinci entró al servicio de Ludovico Sforza, máxima autoridad de la ciudad italiana de Milán. Para ganarse el sustento, entre otras labores, diseñó varias máquinas de guerras para su mecenas. Una de ellas fue este carro de combate con hoces móviles. El artefacto parecía a priori tan peligroso que Leonardo anotó bajo el boceto una advertencia: “este artefacto puede resultar tan peligroso para las propias tropas como para el enemigo”.

Y es que en la guerra hay muchas armas que se pueden volver contra nosotros. Una batalla se pierde cuando somos derrotados por el enemigo, pero también cuando nos convertimos en el enemigo, es decir, cuando adoptamos su código ético.

A lo largo de la historia encontramos varios casos de este tipo de derrotas. Uno muy significativo es el terrorismo de Estado. Si un Estado persigue a los terroristas mediante sus propias armas (secuestros, torturas, asesinatos), al final termina convirtiéndose en un terrorista, que es justo lo que pretendía combatir en un principio. Al respecto, valgan como ejemplos Estados Unidos y su manera de combatir a Al Qaeda o la manera con que Israel se defiende del terrorismo palestino.

Por una extraña razón, muchas han sido las revoluciones populares que experimentan el mismo proceso de transformación. Revolución en la granja, escrita por George Orwel en 1945, es un ejemplo literario perfecto de este fenómeno, que se puede advertir con claridad en la revolución soviética, la maoísta, la jacobina y, en menor medida, la mexicana. En todos aquellos procesos revolucionarios, el pueblo se alzó en armas para terminar con un poder absolutista, la represión de los derechos humanos y el injusto reparto de la riqueza y los medios de producción, y al final una élite terminó ocupando los puestos de poder empleando las mismas malas artes que los defenestrados (o incluso peor en el caso de Stalin).

La advertencia de esta carta resulta, por tanto, evidente. Has de ser muy precavido contigo mismo. Ten cuidado con tus estrategias en la lucha por la supervivencia cotidiana. Quizá estés pensando cómo librarte de ese mal compañero de trabajo, tal vez en cómo resolver un conflicto familiar o la manera de reaccionar ante la faena que te acaban de hacer. Cuidado, medita tu próximo paso si no quieres paladear el amargo sabor de la derrota.

robert wrote:There is something about having to work through a card when planning a design that forces you to own it and interpret it, it provides a level of intimacy that I don't think you can discover any other way.

That is true, it's like building a wall around you so that you can study in the quietude. Remember how it is to go into a study carrel and shut the world out around you?

I really love the flowery Queen of Spades. That's my personal card, but I love flowers and gardening and how perfect that you had that card given your interest in gardening.

I have Poser 3 which must be at least 8 years old. I love the spooky quality to that and the peasant clothes, scythe and they way you have her holding her hand out with the card.

Consulting Babel Fish for Spanish....."Neotarot de Marcóticos is born therefore, that enjoy you it."

Lovely!! I like the colouring! I shall translate a bit more with Babel Fish, which is not entirely reliable but better than nothing.

For The Dream Triumph I: "the dream of the reason, produces monsters." I like the depth of knowledge here, the caution: "Centuries back we saw in what it degenerated the conviction of which the reason is due to put in front to all the things: the Jacobin terror, the communist terror, the Nazi terror, those that defend the state reason and, even, the cultural relativismo."

Oh yes, this is very fine analysis for a card like this (despite the irregularities in translation, the message is there.) The trick of the mind where someone becomes a horror of corrupted thought and ethics. I found this chilling, a good example for "ill-fated times" as spoken of in the Introduction.

For The Defeat Triumph II: "A battle is also lost when we are defeated by the enemy, but when we became the enemy, that is to say, when we adopted its ethical code."

Again, some further reference to history and ideals being twisted which is a favourite theme of mine (and one I recently mentioned with regard to my playing cards about the French Revolution.) I like the reference to Da Vinci's machine of war which he warned could be used against their own troops.

Something a little different for this card.

OHHHHHH, I so love to see how other people interpret these things!!!

South Sea Bubble Playing Cards (facsimile deck)

I mentioned these previously as I've been trying to get this pack of facsimile playing cards for six years, and I managed to nab a copy of it from Somerville's that I'm now waiting for it in the mail (a birthday present courtesy of the spouse.) Harry Margary sells it on his own page but periodically Mr. Somerville will stock it, and I missed it last time he had it in stock.

I bought a reprint of a book from 1841 that discusses the South Sea Bubble of 1720 among other topics, and it's fascinating to examine the Bubble as it is much like our investment problems today. This is probably why the book is still in print in some edition or other.

The cards:

http://www.wopc.co.uk/uk/margary/bubble.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:South ... s-Tree.png

The book (cover from my edition):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraordin ... _of_Crowds

Text available from Project Gutenberg:
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/24518

I generally find economic history and biographies interesting because economics is a great influence on our societies. I am currently reading a biography of J.P. Morgan, which is fascinating, not only for his economic contribution but for his contribution to art and literature through his library. I really wanted to see what he was like as a person. I started reading it three years ago and got interrupted, but I'm slowly savouring it again now.

And the South Sea Bubble cards are coming to my house. Wow, finally.