VintageSpanish Tarot 1975

It's not like El Gran Esoterico - Isn't it a TdM pattern?

What makes it a Spanish Tarot? Being published by a Spanish printer/publisher?

Would a TdM published by USGames be then an American Tarot?

kwaw said:

It's not like El Gran Esoterico - Isn't it a TdM pattern?

What makes it a Spanish Tarot? Being published by a Spanish printer/publisher?

Would a TdM published by USGames be then an American Tarot?

Click to expand...

Indeed, I don't think there's much that's Spanish about it. My guess is that the publishers wanted to attract buyers who would find it desirable to have a tarot deck with titles in Spanish.

Yeah, I think its main claim to being Spanish is the language and the fact that Fournier is Spanish.

From the booklet - "The cards are based upon original woodcuts dating from the year 1736--first produced by Guiseppe Ottone in the village of Serraville Sesia, province of Vercelli, region of Ligura-Piedmontese, Italy." Elsewhere I have read that the originals by Guiseppe Ottone are in the Fournier museum in Spain. As far as I know only a handful of images have been released. I'd be very interested to see them and discover how far the Spanish deviates from the source. I suspect La Sacerdotisa and El Sumo Sacerdotisa are significantly altered. No Papal hats! Surely Guiseppe Ottone, a good Italian, would not have made a bare-headed Pope.

kwaw said:

It's not like El Gran Esoterico - Isn't it a TdM pattern?

What makes it a Spanish Tarot? Being published by a Spanish printer/publisher?

Would a TdM published by USGames be then an American Tarot?

Click to expand...

Lee said:

Indeed, I don't think there's much that's Spanish about it. My guess is that the publishers wanted to attract buyers who would find it desirable to have a tarot deck with titles in Spanish.

Click to expand...

There a specific style to the Spanish playing cards (like the Italian cards with a twist) which made me think that these cards would have some of it. But I don't see that here.

So, if they really modeled it after those woodcuts by said Giuseppe Ottone, they did it either slavishly or (probably) uninspiredly.

Or while drunk. Some of the figures in the deck look like they've been hitting the bottle, for sure. Then there's the mutant kid on The Sun...

Laura Borealis said:

Or while drunk. Some of the figures in the deck look like they've been hitting the bottle, for sure. Then there's the mutant kid on The Sun...

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/hugs Spanish Tarot deck/
*don't listen to them, darling. I still love you*

Laura Borealis said:

Or while drunk. Some of the figures in the deck look like they've been hitting the bottle, for sure. Then there's the mutant kid on The Sun...

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Yeah, I can easily see the artist nursing an extra glass or two of tintillo while drawing them (or trying to).

But doesn't the Sun card have very bad karma, sort of? Look at some of the unfortunate variations that it shows just among the different printings of the RWS --from Pixie's original angelic creature to some of its more crosseyed renderings. There is also a kind of drunken picnic somewhere I can't recall. And who can forget Naked Midget Nixon in the World Spirit?

euripides said:

/hugs Spanish Tarot deck/
*don't listen to them, darling. I still love you*

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That's the spirit!

The Anna K took a while to grow on me, just because of those rather ungainly faces. Now they are actually what I like the most about the deck. Go figure.

Naked... midget... Nixon? Isn't that the same deck with the pantless man? The one Grizz drew over with a Sharpie?

euripides said:

/hugs Spanish Tarot deck/
*don't listen to them, darling. I still love you*

Click to expand...

Oh, but I love it, too! It has such character and charm. But it's only right to let others know the deck is a bit wonky. Three-armed is forewarned.

Laura Borealis said:

But it's only right to let others know the deck is a bit wonky. Three-armed is forewarned.

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True. You're adopting the three-legged dog who buries shoes and barks at falling leaves. (Is there any better kind?)

I used to really, actively dislike the clunky woodcuts of poor-quality medieval & Tudor illustration - those weird characters, misshapen bodies and the often macabre qualities... maybe it's through Tarot or just exposure, I've come to like it a lot more.

It's a bit like in music - we always hear The Best of the Best. Perfection. Sometimes it's nice to be exposed to something that is a little imperfect, a little more human.

I have a newer printing with the Stuart Kaplan LWB. Is it just me, or does the sun on the Sun card look like the moon? And the moon in the Moon card looks like the sun? Is that switcheroo intentional or the result of several shots of tequila?