Homemade Fortune Telling Playing Cards on a No. 606 Congress Deck

It's 11:11 and I'm on fire with card frenzy and bored at work. These are circa 1900 playing cards with fortunes written on them. This was a normal occurrence in the Victorian Era as was sending invitations on the backs of cards. 

While divination is the main appeal here for me the ephemeral side of the handwritten notes on playing cards is a brilliant concept. 

I think I'm going to start typing proclamations on the backs of orphan cards. Cheers, witches. Hell, that'll be my first one.

The cards were taken from the Instagram user The Congress Guy (as in the card brand).

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A Card Within a Card: 3 Jokers and Theirs

As ruminated upon in a previous post here are three more Jokers who are depicted wielding other cards within their own. The first one is openly presenting the Ace of Spades while concealing three others with a mere Diamond peeking out over one corner of the trumvirate. On the second Joker, from a Scandinavian deck, The King of Diamonds is figured prominently as the Joker leans upon it. His poppet Joker is also holding an Ace of Hearts. What it all means would depend on the manufacturer and artist, I suppose. The last specimen from Longfield Games features an Ace of Spades as the Joker stands upon a depiction of the world as a globe which seems almost 3/4 there but not quite whole. All interpretations of this and the preceding ones would be mere speculation and without knowing the artist and his source inspiration it would mainly be a stab into the void. Which is basically what this entire blog consists of.

Tart Rhymes

I came across this excellent booklet from The U. S. Playing Card Co. on Instagram and then tracked down its source to eBay where I took advantage of the generous photos on the listing and saved them in e-book form because it's the right thing to do for posterity's sake. The booklets contains a very short sequence of rhymes that make for one bizarre folktale that wouldn't cut it in today's cancel culture. Also displayed in the small booklet are some card packs produced by the company which is very helpful towards dating the cards for novices who don't have access to the company's historical records.

cardomancy

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