19th Century Five of Cups (Hearts)

I don't know much about 19th century playing cards so it's helpful that the seller I bought this card from, along with another, included a short history of what its likely origins were. From an 1996 e-mail by a man named Bob Rosenberger he suggests that:

"Your card is the 5 of Cups which I would guess was made for the Mexican or Spanish market by an American playing card manufacturer. The back is often seen on 19th century American decks, including some marked decks.

In most cases, such decks are not very rare or highly valued."

The latter part I suspected as I only paid $2 for the card which was a mere accessory to the one linked above which had writing on it that I coveted.

The back of this card is a curious design that hurts my eyes.

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Atlasnye Russian Playing Card Deck

This Atlasnye (Атласные) (Russian word for "satin") Ace of Diamonds from a Russian playing card deck is based on a design by the Russian painter Adolf Iosifovich Charlemagne (1826-1901) (Адольф Иосифович Шарлемань) from1862. Although the original deck seemingly had 52 cards this vintage one that I purchased from Ukraine recently only has 36. I will post the entire deck as time permits.

The Satin Ace

Playing Card Marginalia

I'm completely obsessed with cards that have fortunes written on their face. This card that I recently purchased, which is indicated to be a Ten of Diamonds, has the definition written out to be "Treachery. Subterfuge. Duplicity." on one end and the other "Confidence. Security. Honor. Good Faith." While this differs from Wenzell Brown's definition the card also looks more Tarot than playing card to me in the guise of the Ten of Swords. Other instances which I've encountered are more in line with the standard deck of cards. There's a really nice example of a cartomancy self-learner deck on Etsy but the exorbitant Canadian shipping costs are stopping me from biting on the pack. It's nothing special in the way of vintage and antique cards and realistically I could create my own from my supply of vintage decks with a fountain pen if needs be. Though, knowing myself, I'll produce something like I did below on the spur of the moment after having ...

cardomancy

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