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"If you hear hoofbeats, think of a zebra." Paintings by Londa Marks (Febr. 26, 1952, in Marietta Ohio) The Londa Tarot arose from the displeasure of the designer with the already existing decks with which she couldn’t connect. Experiences from a past as a creative designing costumes and make up for a rock band and an interest for Native Americans ultimately led to the unusual design of the cards that show an otherworldly style varying from gothic to classic Italian. The images also reflect a typical early nineties feeling: a lot of Big Hair is shown while the figurines are somewhat elfin. A bit like David Bowie going Bold and the Beautiful. These extraordinary cards possess all the qualities necessary to become true cult tarot cards. 
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The Belline Oracle is a game conceived and drawn by EDMOND about 1845. The interpretation method and texts by the clairvoyant Belline. The Belline Oracle is a well-known game of cartomancy. It was probably created in the midst 19th Century by a famous French clairvoyant named Edmond Billaudot who predicted the future of illustrious French figures as Alexandre Dumas, Napoléon III and Victor Hugo. He is said to have been a disciple of Madame Lenormand, and it is also said that she created the images on the cards. That though, seems highly unlikely regarding the fact how many different versions of the ‘Lenormand cards’ exist. Besides, a set of Lenormand cards consists of 36 cards while the Oracle Belline has 53. However, there are certain resemblances. The Oracle is complimentary to Astrology as well as to Tarot  The origin of the Fortuna Playing Cards 169 is unclear to us. The design might be from early 1920, but since the deck has two jokers, the cards have probably been produced in the 1950 when the game Canasta became popular. Have been published by Waddington’s from London, are they maybe American or French (Ducale)? Were the meant for overseas export since the box is mentioning the word ‘Foreign’? We simply don’t know. Any feedback is welcome… The box, that shows some serious wear and tear, tells us that there are 53 cards, that are overall in reasonable good condition, and that one joker is enclosed. However, there are 52 cards, two jokers, two blanc cards with different colored retro’s and finally two extra Ladies (also with different coloring of the back). Maybe several incomplete decks were made into one. A mysterious deck of cards which musty appearance leads to fantasies of smoky bars and rough times where cards were being used not only for fun but also for divination. The Tarots of the Origins was published by Lo Scarabeo in 1991. The original artwork has been designed by Sergio Toppi. The images are made with ecoline (water coloring). This edition contains only the 21 cards of the major arcana and includes two leaflets, one describing the Tarot in general and the other offering the meaning of the cards in keywords. A later edition (which by now became also a collector’s item), was published in 2000 and contains also the 56 cards of the minor arcana. This very rare edition is clearly one of Lo Scarabeo’s earlier publications in that the presentation of the cards as well as the packaging is more luxury than later publications. This edition is part of Lo Scarabeo’s so called Art Tarots (Tarocchi d’Arte) and was printed by Fratelli Moglia, Torino. The images designed by Sergio Toppi show strong lines and archetypical images in a background of beautiful and inspiring coloring. The images show an almost shamanistic approach of the traditional symbolism of the tarot cards and, in doing so, provide the cards with a strong radiance of almost bilateral profoundness. The images of the Tarots of the Origins relate to unconscious wanting to connect love and solidarity throughout the world. A truly magnificent deck of cards! Rare & Old Tarot DecksWe started e-mailing out a newsletter, which eventually was named the Tarocks Tribune. These newsletters were extensive from the beginning, so we decided to make them more accessibly by sharing them here. This is our second. To read them all, click on the Tribune category near the top of our blog page.  Greetings! We are happy to present you with the second Tarocks newsletter.
If, while reading the newsletter, you think of someone who would also enjoy it, please feel free to forward them this e-mail and let them sign up by clicking here. Writing a newsletter is always a challenge because it has proven quite difficult for us to choose which decks are to be added to the Blog next. In case you need a little reminder, the Blog is where we publish two decks twice a month in the form of a blog post that includes many detailed photos. You can take a look here. |