Help for old french card. Fish & Clog.

Moonbow

Maybe the secret is in what he is holding in his other hand, though I can't tell what that is, but it seems to be the other part of whatever the bubble thing is.
 

Bernice

I've blown up the other hand..... murky

Bee :)
 

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Rosanne

Love the cards Bee!
I have a theory :laugh:

The Pope is blowing a glass orb(or a bubble) and capturing a Bee (not you Bee)

You see the Bee is Napoleon's symbol and to get crowned he and the Pope made a contract of sorts about bringing the French back to Church.
It cost mega bucks to hold this Coronation and it cost the Church nothing to capture the Bee. Quite funny really.
Life is upside down really- the bee was apparently the Fleur-de-lis the other way up.
~Rosanne
 

Rosanne

Looking at the cards on the site you linked Bee (trionfi) they strike me as very funny in a dry way.

The Pope: I have a theory

The Pope is blowing a glass orb(or a bubble) and capturing a Bee (not you Bee)

You see the Bee is Napoleon's symbol and to get crowned he and the Pope made a contract of sorts about bringing the French back to Church.
It cost mega bucks to hold this Coronation and it cost the Church nothing to capture the Bee. Quite funny really.
Life is upside down really- the bee was apparently the Fleur-de-lis the other way up.

Card 7 The Naked Angel holds Psalm 45 when it is already up there.
18th Century No 45. So what does Psalm 45 say....
(Words that the *psalmist says to the king:)

You are the most beautiful man (that there is).
You speak words of grace.
God has made you special for ever.
Wear your sword by your side.
(You are) the Mighty One.
(You are) great and (you are) the king!

Hehe did The Little Man have no Shame? He did not wait for inspiration- he had already decided lol.
Very funny few cards........
~Rosanne
 

Bernice

As I thought, rather wry and a bit disrespectful deck :). Love it!

Noelle said:

"That is his spectacle case ... and explains his squinting.
And, I think she may be right! That 'bubble' may in fact be a magnifying glass! The more I look at the image, the more convinced I become. (Perhaps he's looking for Napoleons' bee!)


It seems to me that some of the cards are sybilla, like the poorly man on his sick bed. But what of the King at his dining table, is he the Rich Man?

Bee :)
 

Huck

From

http://www.luckymojo.com/cartomancy.html

UNNUMBERED "CARTOMANCY" AND "GYPSY" ORACLE CARD DECKS

In the late 19th century, a third system of card reading arose in Europe, using unnumbered emblematic cards. Although many of the images in these decks derive from Lenormand style decks, the cards are not set-numbered and they do not contain insets of playing cards. They generally come in packs of 36, 48, or 52 cards. Although They are sometimes sold under names like "Gipsy Cards," or "Cartomancy Cards." Despite the name "Gipsy" in the title, these Oracle Cards should not be confused with the Lenormand style 52-card Gypsy Witch Fortune Telling Playing Cards described above.

In these "Cartomancy" or "Oracle Card" decks, the cards are not numbered or ordered in any way. They do not contain inset the pip or court cards from a regular deck of playing cards, nor do they include a special trump suit like Tarot cards. However, they still feature many of the images that were devised by Lenormand and her successors -- figures such as the Widower, the Letter, the House, and the Thief. The images on these cards are both allegorical and direct: Hope is a woman with an anchor, Love is enacted by Cupid, Malady shows a woman sick in bed, and Falseness is still the Fox of Lenormand's devising.

Unnumbered decks of this type are without a doubt among the most beautifully illustrated of all the non-Tarot cards used for fortune telling. Many of them seem to have originated in Austria. The oldest of the unnumbered Austrian "Cartomancy" sets contain 32 cards, like the original Lenormand Euchre decks, but as time went on, more cards were added to cover more of life's conditions, so there are decks with 32, 36, and 52 cards.

Examples of these sets include the 32-card so-called Biedermeier Fortune Telling Cards (the title is modern and simply refers to the Biedermeier art style of the cards), the early 20th century 36-card Gipsy Fortune Telling Cards (Zigeuner Warsagekarten -- not be confused with the 52-card Gypsy Witch Playing Cards), and the 52-card so-called Art Deco Fortune Telling Cards (the name again is simply a descriptor of the 1930s-era painted artwork).

Perhaps the deck somehow belongs to this category.

Compare also: http://trionfi.com/f/

d0059315.jpg
 

Bernice

(Huck):In the late 19th century, a third system of card reading arose in Europe, using unnumbered emblematic cards.
........... <snip >........
In these "Cartomancy" or "Oracle Card" decks, the cards are not numbered or ordered in any way..
........... <snip >........
Unnumbered decks of this type are without a doubt among the most beautifully illustrated of all the non-Tarot cards used for fortune telling. Many of them seem to have originated in Austria. The oldest of the unnumbered Austrian "Cartomancy" sets contain 32 cards,....
These however are numbered. They are also beautifully illustrated - to my eyes :)

So this deck might be Austrian. That would explain the lovely artwork.......

Thank you for posting the card image and the info Huck. It's such an intriguing picture.


Bee :)
 

Huck

I don't know, if they in Austria would have a fish in a wooden shoe ... :) The wooden shoes are mostly associated to the Netherlands, but I think they are or had been also in Northern France and also in Northern Germany. Likely they are practical (easy to clean) in muddy, flat and not too hot regions, not in the mountains ... :)

Perhaps it's reminds a proverb or a custom? Somewhere I've read something of "Bruggegeld" (Bridge-money), that was collected with a wooden shoe ... there are these moving bridges, which let the ships through. Somebody must be on the ship, another must move the bridge. A fisher, who returns back with fish, wouldn't pay with money, but with fish for the service ... perhaps something like this. The shoe was let down to the boat with a rope or a fishing rod possibly. Somewhere I've read "Holzschuhe statt Fische angeln" (capture wooden shoes instead of fishes) in context of a festivity of a fishing club ... I don't know the meaning, but it sounds like "too much open hands to feed" or "having paid a charge for the allowance for fishing, but didn't got a fish".

Ask a North Friesian fisher, they will know ... .-)

btw. http://trionfi.com/m/d04612 from ca. 1870 is also a 32 cards deck and somehow similar. Some motifs are from Tarot, for instance Death, Temperance, Luck.