Wahrsagen à la Lenormand deck

Lee said:

My current theory (formulated yesterday) is that the artist actually did intend to show a whip on the table.

You can see a somewhat clearer version of the card here. Still ambiguous, but I take as a clue that the mouse on the Mice card is also very difficult to make out. I'm wondering if the original artist miscalculated the size/quality of print and drew designs for those cards which ended up not reproducing very well.

I really like this deck. I agree that the cardstock is great. Also I feel the drawings on the whole are more refined than those on the Mertz deck, as is the coloring. I'm glad I have the Gluck from a collecting point of view, but yesterday I decided to go back to using the Mertz deck, simply because the imagery on Whips and Mice is clearer and cleaner.

Click to expand...

Yes, the mice card is another funny one but I can make out dark blotches scuttling and that's mice for you. It's as good a mice card as you'll get this size. I just this deck. I'm using this more than the Mertz right now simply becaue it will fit in a gorgeous little Art Nouveau Belgian Chocolate tin I have (though sadly I had to clear out the chocolates first). So this is officially the Gluck then is it? After Alexander Gluck? Do they know who the original 1850 publisher was?

Such heavenly cardstock. Yes my corners are rounded because I found it prickly and unshuffleable as it was. I de-cornered them and now they are perfect! You can tell the anatomy is more accomplished than in the Mertz deck (which has what looks like a stunted armless lady on the female significator), but I do like them both. For the moment, though, this is my favourite *period* Lenormand.

Thank you for explaining about the rounded corners, Le Fanu - I had thought there might be two versions for sale.

Speaking for myself, I call this deck the Gluck because Alexander Gluck brought it to a contemporary publisher's attention - I can't read German, but the lovely German-language book accompanying the deck might explain its history. Alexander Gluck says on another thread that the deck was originally hand-colored by "friendly Saxon women," and one of the illustrations in the book bears a date of 1850. Beyond that, I'm in the dark as to its history. Ditto the Mertz, for that matter.

Le Fanu said:

Do they know who the original 1850 publisher was?

Click to expand...

The lenormand-wahrsagekarten.de site identifies it as DDR Lenormandkarten, don't know if "DDR" refers to the publisher.

(though sadly I had to clear out the chocolates first)

Click to expand...

Lee said:

The lenormand-wahrsagekarten.de site identifies it as DDR Lenormandkarten, don't know if "DDR" refers to the publisher.

Click to expand...

Isn't it the old name for the German republic? Deutsche Demokratische Republik? I assumed that's where it came from...

Le Fanu said:

Isn't it the old name for the German republic? Deutsche Demokratische Republik? I assumed that's where it came from...

Click to expand...

That makes sense.

I consider the Mertz deck to be analogous to the Marseille, and thus the Gluck would be like, say, the Soprafino. There's room for both, and each has their charms.

I just received my Wahrsagen deck set today. Since the cards did not come in a case but in cellophane the first order of business was finding a home for them, an old Altoids tin worked out just fine.

Firstly, I must say I was surprised by the size of the deck. It is the smallest lenormand deck I have handled so far. It has square corners which make the cards look a bit like a toy deck. As was mentioned by others in this thread the card stock is firm, but it must be considering the small size of the cards. The card stock however did not allow me to shuffle the deck, so I mixed the cards.

The Rider card faces left which is not my preferred direction for #1 as I do use the directional orientation of the cards when reading. The Bear looks a bit like a boar. The Tower is as slim as a pencil. The Mice and the Whips are not well defined. The Fox is grey while I like a red lenormand fox. The Stork looks like a Pelican.

Upon first glance it looks as if different persons contributed to the artwork. I find it hard to believe the same person who drew the full rigged Ship and the large House cards drew the diminutive Tower. There are hints of different tints and shade variations on the cards as well which support my theory of various artists contributing to the deck, but it is more likely the cards were compiled from different decks done by the same artist at different periods in their life, as the court inserts which are finely done and detailed seem to come from the same hand.

So glad I purchased this set. The coloring of the cards is very attractive, a mix of brightness and shade. All in all a curious little lenormand which will be my travel mate and will grace my table when I cast the Grand Tableau.

So glad you like it. I love mine more and more. I love these small Lenormands for the Grand Tableau. And this one takes up very little space. I do think it's improved with rounded corners, which make it easier to shuffle. The only thing that bothers me are the ambiguous broom/birch card and the mice card, but once I've got over that, I think it exudes charm. I'm in love with the cardstock too.

It's a limited edition so I don't know how long it's going to be around.

Le Fanu;

Many thanks for bringing this deck and the fabulous Mertz to our attention as well as giving sources for their purchase.

MW

Le Fanu said:

However.. a question; card number 11 is the rod/birch/whip, right? Well in this deck, which has traditional, standard, familiar Lenormand imagery in all the other cards, has a very strange card to represent this one. I enclose a scan. It shows a table. How would you read this? I have seen this card to mean "taking stock" or "inventories". Or maybe (?) by extension of bringing everything to the table, working stuff out (I'm guessing here). But any other ideas?

Click to expand...

Does the book not give any clues?

The Game of Hope pictures

The Petit Lenormand appears to have been modelled on a deck of cards published much earlier as part of a game of chance:

"Detlef Hoffmann has shown that their prototype can be clearly traced back to a lovely little pack of fancy cards, called 'Das Spiel der Hofnung (sic) / Le jeu de l'espérance' (The Game of Hope), published around 1800 by G.P.J. Bieling in Nuremberg."
A Wicked Pack of Cards, Ronald Decker, Thierry Depaulis and Michael Dummett

Click to expand...

I found pictures online of a complete set of The Game of Hope (Le Jeu de l'Esperance). It is quite similar to the Gluck Lenormand deck, and you can see the birch quite clearly on the table!