Piatnik Oracle Deck - Help identify?

I found this deck at an estate sale and wasn't sure of the age. Does anywhere here recognize it or know anything about it?

It was stored with a couple of tarocchi decks.

Sadly, Google image search couldn't pinpoint this deck.

http://imgur.com/a/Lk0cZ

jeffreykramer9 said:

I found this deck at an estate sale and wasn't sure of the age. Does anywhere here recognize it or know anything about it?

It was stored with a couple of tarocchi decks.

Sadly, Google image search couldn't pinpoint this deck.

http://imgur.com/a/Lk0cZ

Click to expand...

Looks like an old German playing card deck, actually...have you sent a pic of it to Piatnik...? I think they could tell you

Or Austrian. Perhaps this link can help you.

How many cards?

Thank you for the replies, everyone. It has 32 cards present, but I don't know if that's the complete deck. I'm going to look at the other links you posted and see if they shed some light on what it might be.

What a lovely find!

These are playing cards.

There are card games played with only partial decks, and decks sold for that purpose. Piquet is I think the most common game played with a smaller deck and I believe you can buy 32-card piquet decks.

Ace, 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King
x 4 suits of two suits = 32

If someone takes out the unneeded cards for a reduced-card game, it's called a "stripped" deck.

I've also seen decks with the "low" cards only of two suits, and the high cards only of the other two suits, plus the court cards.

If this is what you've got, it's likely not an "incomplete" deck, but a deck intended for specific card games--whether it was sold that way, or had the unnecessary cards set aside for play.

More here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stripped_deck

Although these are playing cards, they might be used for divination--hard to say. I've got playing card decks with divinatory meanings handwritten on the cards.

Ok, looking again at your photo of the cards laid out--doesn't show them all--I see:

Ace (with two bells), 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack (Unter), Knight (Ober) and King of Bells
Ace (with two acorns) 7, 8, 9, 10, Ober and King of Acorns
Ace (with two hearts) 7, 8, 9, 10, Unter, Ober and King of Hearts
Ace (with two leaves) 7, 8, 9, 10, Unter and King of Leaves.

I'm betting if you lay them out by suit (bells, acorns, hearts and leaves) you'll find this is a pack for playing Piquet.

PS: Jeffrey I looked at the other photos on your site (Ego: Game of Prediction) and note they have the same four suits.

Debra said:

Ace (with two bells)

Click to expand...

Thanks for explaining that. I was thinking it was the two of bells and therefore it wasn't a deck with just the high numbers.

Your deck looks like an Austrian playing card deck that came with 32cards (though some had 36 cards) -- suits are acorns, leaves, bells and hearts.... they also call these "Jasskarten" (after a game) it looks similar to Piatnik & Sohne decks from the 1830s but slightly different design... maybe bohemian?
See here...towards the bottom:

http://www.pagat.com/class/german.html


The cards are 7,8,9,10 Uber, Unter, (over "Jack" and under "Jack") King and sometimes Deuce or Daus. (it functions like the "Ace")

There's still a few popular games of these. Nice deck