Antique Lenormand

balusan

Hi all,

We were given a nice and old looking Lenormand deck, actually it is a german version, not colored on a parchment cardstock. We cannot really open the manual as it is falling apart, oops. The different thing here is that it is a double image, divided in the middle, not like other Lenormand decks giving a playing card, yet truly doubling some of the images, like the roses or sun etc.
Anyone, has a clue of the name of this deck and how old it might be?
 

Astraea

There are scads of old/antique Lenormands, many of them German. It will take awhile to look through the list at the Lenormand Museum (http://www.lenormand-museum.com/sitemap.php), but there's a good chance you'll be able to find what you're looking for there.

Can you possibly post some pictures of your deck?

(Edited to add: Pictures of the accompanying booklet would be very helpful, too. There might be a title, copyright date, or other identifying information that those who read German could recognize.)
 

balusan

Mlle Lenormand's Untruegliche WahrsageKarten

I can read the German myself and was raised bilingual in The Netherlands.
The cards are on simple cardstock and are Black and white on a creamy cardstock ( or just plain old ). Each card is double and I have not seen a copyright, The only defining other description is on the inlay page it states with these cards Napoleon was given advise and all came true, all in german of course. I will forward pics later today.
 

Cerulean

I look forward to it--perhaps a petit oracle des dames?

While Petit Oracle des Dames came to mind, it seems mysterious to have a black and white set.

It may be the German deck may be a completely new type or a version of a piquet pack....eager to see.
 

Huck

The German Lenormand deck origin has been described by DDD "Wicked Pack of Cards" at p. 141.
It developed as "Spiel der Hoffnung" (Game of Hope) and it was a race game (made with cards, which were composed to a playing board in the mid of the table), , produced by G.P.J. Bieling in Nuremberg in Germany.
I looked it up and found an announcement of the year 1799 in a book made by the publisher G.P.J. Bieling. The book itself has humorous aspects and nothing to do with the game, the author writes with pseudonym.

http://books.google.de/books?id=kU9...AzgK#v=onepage&q="Spiel der Hoffnung"&f=false

Bieling was just a publisher, it's not naturally given, that he was the author. The printing house existed since 1760.

Depaulis notes, that the primary interest was in the running game, but thatsome explanation text offers the iea, tha one could also useit in a diviniatory manner, but would have to keep 4 cards aside (so they likely knew a 32-cards-divination-system, but not a system with 36 card).

The divination cards (DDD states, that they existed about 1850) later took the name "Petit Lenormand". But: It was never produced in France, though beside in Germany in Belgium, Austria and Switzerland. The version is still rather popular and it's a question, if in Germany Petit Lenormand or Tarot decks have the higher acceptance.

***********

Perhaps you should try ...
http://trionfi.com/f
... or scan a few images and present them here.
 

balusan

Lenormand deck

The closest we see it comes to the "J.Schablowsky" (Jelgava, Kurlandia, Russia)
deck "Lenormand", from 1876 however the cards again are double as you can see in the images and no color on the back of the card
 

Attachments

  • Lenormand_leaflet.jpg
    Lenormand_leaflet.jpg
    88.3 KB · Views: 736
  • Lenormand.jpg
    Lenormand.jpg
    93.5 KB · Views: 794

Le Fanu

Curious cards. Slightly different from traditional Lenormand cards as there is a Rabbit card and a grapes (?) card and a Cat card (which you find it Sibillas) and invariably means "Treachery" (*sigh*).

What a lovely thing to have!
 

Huck

The closest we see it comes to the "J.Schablowsky" (Jelgava, Kurlandia, Russia)
deck "Lenormand", from 1876 however the cards again are double as you can see in the images and no color on the back of the card

About Courland, or Kurlandia or Kurland:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courland
Population

In 1870 the population was 619,154; in 1897 it was 674,437 (of whom 345,756 were women); in 1906 it was estimated at 714,200. Of the whole, 79% were Latvians, 8.4% Baltic Germans, about 8% Jews[1], 1.4% Russians, 1% Lithuanians, 1% Poles, and some Livonians.
The chief towns of the ten districts were Jelgava (Mitau), Courland's capital (pop. 35,011 in 1897) ...

So there were enough German influences to publish a deck in German language.

A 36-card Madame Lenormand type cartomancy deck was published in Latvia in 1876 by J. Schablowsky of Jelgava, titled “Game of Happiness”. The illustrations were in black and white and a Gothic typeface was used for the divinatory meanings printed on each card.
http://www.wopc.co.uk/latvia/index.html

... :) ... why don't you use google with "Jablowsky" and "playing cards"? Jablowsky or Schablowski is likely no deciding difference.
 

balusan

Lenormand cards

Thanks Huck,

Will do these searches too, as other work!, had precedence.
Good info though.

So a rare and old deck indeed, around 1870's you figure, wow
 

balusan

antique Lenormand

Still interesting, there are so few responses on the images of the deck and or if anyone else has seen them before, on this esteemed and widely varied forum.