Wahrsagen à la Lenormand deck

Le Fanu

I recently bought the Wahrsagen á la Lenormand deck. Lovely reproduction deck, really very special indeed. And the kind of cardstock I didn't think anyone used anymore. Flawless production. And fits perfectly into an exquisite Art Nouveau tin I had hanging around.

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?

It's a rather odd representation...
 

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Le Fanu

Oh and I attach a scan of a few more cards just for the heck of it. Just in case anyone fancied a bit of new year enabling...
 

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Astraea

Birches/Whips is associated with dispute and contention, so I view this image as a literal representation of "bringing [an issue] to the table."
 

Le Fanu

Astraea said:
Birches/Whips is associated with dispute and contention, so I view this image as a literal representation of "bringing [an issue] to the table."
Click to expand...
That's what I thought. Interesting that link from cardlady; we see the table with birches on but here we have the table only. They say that it should really be a besom which is a kind of broom, tool of domesticity or "keeping house". So - yes - housekeeping, putting things in order, keeping stock, maybe the process of accounting (rather than the financial results)?

Curious representation.
 

Lee

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.
 

Astraea

Lee, I think your theory makes a great deal of sense and is almost certainly correct. Thank you!

As an aside, the corners on my deck are square, as they are in the photo you link to...but I notice that Le Fanu's are round. Are your deck's corners square or round, Lee?
 

Lee

Hi Astraea, mine are square, and the back is a deep, dark blue.
 

Astraea

Thanks, Lee, then mine are identical to yours.
 

tarot heart

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...

Well, I must agree. There is definitely something on that table, it's just difficult to make it out.
 
Personalized Lenormand Cards Reading the Whip