Piatnik Rhenan Deck

Just got this and oh how I love it. Not a lot of info on this deck around! Feels like I'm holding a little obscure treasure in my hands!
Found a couple of threads dating back to 2005 on this, but that's about it.

Anyway, just wanted to share my excitement. It feels good. Great stock, lovely raw lines and a very ancient feel. It will probably look even better when it gets hand aged!

Paz y amor,
B.

Yes it is lovely but I have often wondered what it is that keeps me from loving it.

I think it's the sense of "missing lines" I get from this deck. I'm all for rough woodcuts but some cards feel too feint and uncoloured, the lines too broken up. It's odd because looking at scans it looks very nice. I find the faces a little too distorted.

But it is beautifully produced. Lovely cardstock. And I love that Yeti Hermit. I should have (yet) another look and play around.

Hi B. This is one of my favorite decks of all time, for many of the reasons you cite. It feels extraordinarily good in the hands, doesn't it? I find it very mellow-looking and gentle, somehow. And, like Le Fanu, I love the Hermit - of all the Hermit imagery I've seen, this one appeals the most to me. Glad you're enjoying the deck!

This is my favourite Marseille - I bought it one summer in London and spent an entire summer with it in the garden, so it now seems accompanied by the scent of lilac and roses and the sound of bees.

I love the fuzzy lines & disregard for boundaries & staying within the lines; in my opinion, this makes it very condusive (?SP?) to intuitive readings.

And ha! 'yeti hermit!' I LOVE that! I'd always thought he was wrapped up in bear skins or, alternatively a very itchy and scratchy sack.

I also see a quantity of pointy vampire teeth and a cross-eyed Pope.
there is an earthiness that is comforting in this deck; the characters look as if they could harvest crops, shoe a horse, deliver a baby, clean a rabbit, bake a pie and lay out a corpse.

At the same time, figures dissolve, limbs vanish, one thing becomes another and you can make up your own system of symbols.

I just drew a card at random - it's the Tower - and this morning it seems full of coloured confetti and acrobats, which is very cheering. However I could draw it tomorrow and see earthquakes and desperation.

And it has the lovliest card stock I have ever encountered. I've had this deck about twenty years and it just gets better & better.

I agree that the cardstock is wonderful - truly silky with absolutely no feeling of plastic. The 'Yeti Hermit' - that's terrific; I'll certainly remember that image. I'm intrigued by the back end of Death's skull, that red area that appears to peep out from behind the grinning skeleton 'mask' - makes me think he's got a bloody, skinless head behind that mask. The facial expressions are among the most varied of any Marseille deck I own - I love to browse them. I think my favorite is Le Bateleur, who seems to be wondering if he has screwed up or not.

And I actually like the 'missing line' effect - it almost looks like the figures are dissolving into the aether (or, alternatively, appearing from out of the aether). The lwb in my copy is very odd - it determinedly resists making any comment on this particular version. It does make a point I've seen made nowhere else - that the Hanged Man is the Magician of Card I. Mine still live in their very tattered original box, though the cards and booklet have held up quite well.

I can't say that this is my favorite Marseille deck, but it's certainly one of the most appealing of my small TdM group.

Your comments have made me want to look anew at this deck (though I can't lay my hands on it at the moment). I seem to remember that the LWB was a very good LWB. I remember it for that reason. It was very different from other tarot LWBs.

I've included a (rather small) image with the Yeti hermit in case others were curious. It's the furry back I like...

The hermit reminds me of the Besancon. Which came first? I haven't seen this deck dated anywhere. The Piatnik TdM also has interesting cues from both Type I and Type II.

DeToX said:

The hermit reminds me of the Besancon. Which came first? I haven't seen this deck dated anywhere. The Piatnik TdM also has interesting cues from both Type I and Type II.

Click to expand...

In an older thread about this deck (http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=31099&highlight=Piatnikabout), one of Aeclectic's finest historians (kenji) had this to say:

According to Kaplan, Ignaz Krebs was active in Freiburg im Breisgau (Germany)
in the 18th century.
(You can see the pictures of this deck in Kaplan III, p628.)

I think this deck is a mixture of TdM and TdB (Tarot de Besancon) in design.
The trumps III, IIII, VIIII, X, XI, XVIII, XVIIII, and XX have all typical TdB styles.
So the engraver should have referred to a TdB deck, maybe one produced in around Strasbourg.

Interestingly, most of the other trumps look quite similar to the cards in the deck by
C. F. Carrajat of Chambery (Kaplan II, p335), which is seemingly a descendent deck of
"Claude Thomasset, Switzerland" (Kaplan II, p319).

And in addition, in some respects another (or more) TdM deck(s) may have had influence
on the Krebs deck:
For example, Krebs' "The Fool" card has the French title "LE MAT", while TdBs,
Thomasset and Carrajat all have "LE FOL (or FOU)".


Note: Freiburg im Breisgau is quite near to the German border with France (Strasbourg!)
and that with Switzerland. And this city went through the occupation by France a few times
in the 17th and 18th centuries.

I agree about the peculiarity of the LWB. The descriptions of the majors are interesting and quite unique. ( The High Priestess= Problems...) and it also presents a spread I haven't seen anywhere else called The Magic Quadrate, which calls to shuffle the trumps and minors separety and draw in turns from each pile. Haven't tried it yet but sounds cool!

I also love the tone of white in the background; a little aged, a little dirty. There's some old style decks that seem to be printed with super white backgrounds, and it seems a bit digital for my taste. Specially when it comes to old world recreations.

<3 this deck. Now I need to sharpen my non-pictorial pip skills....

Is this deck still available / in print? If so, where can I get one from?