Most Popular Decks in France & Italy pre-1950?

[Cerulean]

You are definitely welcome to add and correct specifics for any general comment and give examples, as many here are much better with their excellent facts AND can help in greater depth!

Much of the small fragments on the Arminino cardmakers that I came across were later editiions, and serraville and Genovese names, but this is circa 1890 or after, so I cannot say. The decks with Arminino names seemed to copy the Soprafino of 1845 of di Gumppenburg and another was a a woodcut...it looked similar to the Lamperti. My other Arminino was a sibilla....you probably have earlier decks than what I saw in the Fournir catalogue and my limited collectiom.

If you can tell me please more about these patterns and cardmakers for the questioner and myself, I would be happy.

Thanks.

Originally Posted by l'appeso

hi cerulea

could you be more specific on that? Because I guess it's the other way round: the piedmontese pattern being copied by some milanese cardmaker...

then, as the divination tradition in piedmont predates the esoteric vogue (in etteilla he states that he learned how to read tarots from a piedmontese man) I suppose there were a lot of readers who used piedmontese double sided cards as reading tools. (you can still find old double sided decks with writings on them...)

[l'appeso]

There are three main patterns which can be called Piedmontese.

The first one to appear was the Ottone deck in 1736, the first of a series of many Serravalle Sesia Tarots. Interestingly Serravalle has one of the oldest paper mills which dates back to 1580--moreover Serravalle and the Valsesia, in the northern-east part of Piedmont (hence close to Lombardy & Switzerland) had been a Visconti dominion so we can argue that the game of tarot was already well known by then). The Fournier Spanish Tarot is a modern edition of this tarot.
This pattern is basically a TdM 1 (like the Payen, for instance). Titles are in French (consider that in 18th century Piedmont not many people spoke proper Italian, French was the language for government while in the countryside the local dialect was spoken.

By mid 19th century a newer patter came out. The so-called "ligure piemontese" tarot (see kaplan vol2 pp. 376, 380, 384...). This has got Italian titles (maybe in order to promote the usage of the italian language. in 19th century Italy was a young nation!).

The first modern piedmontese tarot is the Vergnano (1850 - kaplan vol. II p. 353 but see also p. 377). This has still got the whole figure, but there are arabic numbers and the fool is chasing a butterfly!).
Then by the end of 19th century we have the doulbe figure tarot (eg the Viassone -- kaplan II p. 390) which is clearly derived from the Vergnano.

[Cerulean]

http://i-p-c-s.org/pattern/ps-17.html

I am sorry that I was not able to be more clear about my 1887 Arminino from Geneva prior to this. The engravings were reprinted circa 2010 from Fournier of Spain.

I have a 1953 Arminino of Rome titled Tarocco Bolognese, but it was later than the questioner wanted. With L'Appeso's details, I was able to find this:

http://i-p-c-s.org/pattern/ps-11.html

Hopefully this gives a bit more background.

Thank you L'Appeso and others for the wonderful detail and additional information on the Piedmontese and other patterns, these are wonderful to learn about for me, as well. I enjoyed this!

Best wishes,

Cerulean

[l'appeso]

Originally Posted by Cerulean

http://i-p-c-s.org/pattern/ps-17.html

I am sorry that I was not able to be more clear about my 1887 Arminino from Geneva prior to this. The engravings were reprinted circa 2010 from Fournier of Spain.

Cerulean

hi,
this is really interesting, it seems to be a hybrid of soprafino and piedmontese pattern. Is the fournier edition still in print?

the pattern I was referring to is that one:

http://i-p-c-s.org/pattern/ps-4.html

[Cerulean]

http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/genovese/

http://www.houseoftarot.com/Fournier_c_26.html

I am hoping to learn more of the Arminino cardmakers over time and wonder if the name is associated with one family. I have been eagerly learning more in some cases that families such as the French Simon C. Blocquel and his son-in-law M.F. Delarue of the 19th century, the English Delarue (no relation that I know of to the French card-maker) and the Di Gumppenberg/Lamperti of Milan...

The review above says the Tarot Genovese was fromc 2007 and House of Tarot does list it; I do not know if Alidastore.com is a better vendor for you.

Hope you can find this--it is a lovely variation to me. Some of the prettiest reproductions that I have come from the designs stemming from the Della Rocca and other designs from the Di Gumppenberg-family-affiliated cardmakers of the 19th century.

Best regards,

Cerulean