OnePotato
I recently bought a very nice, and quite early cartomancy deck of 50 cards, with the original box.
I must admit I don't know much about this area, but I'm quite smitten with this particular deck.
They are finely engraved copperplate printed, and beautifully hand colored.
The drawing quality is fantastic.
The whole presentation is wonderfully atmospheric.
The box is made of patterned board, with a printed label glued to the front.
Top flaps are missing.
Many cards are titled in three languages, (German, French and Italian,) but some also include English and Dutch.
Going by the overall quality, I would guess these were produced in the first quarter of the 19th century.
And based upon a very tiny date on one of the coins in the money card, and a date on a tiny grave marker in another card, I would narrow it down to circa 1816.
Unfortunately, I could not find a maker's signature anywhere.
Given the quality of the work, I'm surprised at this.
As the main title is in German, I'd assume a Bavarian origin.
Perhaps the English and Dutch titles were added to the plates later, for export to those countries?
Has anyone seen anything like these before?
When I have some time, I want to compare the subjects to a Lenormand deck, to see how closely they might be related.
I'm also hoping to do some digging to see if I can get any clues that might identify the maker.
I must admit I don't know much about this area, but I'm quite smitten with this particular deck.
They are finely engraved copperplate printed, and beautifully hand colored.
The drawing quality is fantastic.
The whole presentation is wonderfully atmospheric.
The box is made of patterned board, with a printed label glued to the front.
Top flaps are missing.
Many cards are titled in three languages, (German, French and Italian,) but some also include English and Dutch.
Going by the overall quality, I would guess these were produced in the first quarter of the 19th century.
And based upon a very tiny date on one of the coins in the money card, and a date on a tiny grave marker in another card, I would narrow it down to circa 1816.
Unfortunately, I could not find a maker's signature anywhere.
Given the quality of the work, I'm surprised at this.
As the main title is in German, I'd assume a Bavarian origin.
Perhaps the English and Dutch titles were added to the plates later, for export to those countries?
Has anyone seen anything like these before?
When I have some time, I want to compare the subjects to a Lenormand deck, to see how closely they might be related.
I'm also hoping to do some digging to see if I can get any clues that might identify the maker.