About this item
- The Frau Grand Duchess Tarot has 78 full-colour collaged cards, originally put together on green index cards. The
- collages have a very sixties retro vibe, even down to the typewriter font used for the titles. Self-published and available
- direct from the artist.
Specifications
Name
|
Frau Grand Duchess Tarot
|
Creators
|
J. M. Kruch
|
Publisher
|
Self Published 2013
|
Deck Type
|
Tarot Deck
|
Cards
|
78
|
Major Arcana
|
22
|
Minor Arcana
|
56
|
Card Language
|
English
|
Companion Material
|
Instruction booklet with card meanings.
|
Reviews
theme, but the Frau Grand Duchess is helping to remedy
that dreadful state of affairs.
The deck is based on
fifties, sixties and seventies culture and experience. It
is a witty, clever, and thoughtfully put together
collage deck. Sometimes eccentric, occasionally surreal,
it is a landscape of mid-century modern memories.
Except that, when we look at it, we can't help wondering
if our memories are a wee bit skewed. Odd
juxtapositions often found in collage decks are put to artistic,
bizarre, and sometimes even wacky use. But the artist
always gives us something to think about. The Queen of
Swords, with her corset and rifle, makes us suppose that
the widow of the tarot might have ended her own
marriage perhaps? On the 8 of Swords, Malcolm X looks
out from behind bars, into a room so cluttered with
furniture, it seems he may be in a dungeon no matter what
side of the bars he is on.
In structure, the deck is
traditional, based on RWS meanings, with the standard suits of
Wands, Swords, Cups and Coins. We also have
the
traditional courts of Kings, Queens, Knights and Pages. The
cards measure 5" by 3". The Majors do not have numbers
on the cards, but the LWB gives Justice as VIII and
Strength (Force) as XI.
The cards generally do not show
the pips. The minors are illustrated, revealing the
meaning of the cards. But pips don't appear. At least, not
always. The 10 of Swords has a pair of scissors hidden in
the background. You'll have to look carefully, or you
might miss it. And this is one of the things that makes
the deck so compelling. It's full of surprises. The
more you look, the more you find. The unexpected, and
the incongruous, are everywhere. And somehow, it all
works.
A nice touch is that the deck is very ethnically
diverse, which adds to its depth and complexity. Typing the
titles with what appears to be a classic Remington that
sorely needs a new ribbon is a detail that adds to the
retro vibe.
The cardstock is very nice. Flexible and
bendable and creamy smooth. The cards are laminated and
shuffle easily. The backs are reversible. And the fronts
are 100 percent pure tarot readin' pleasure!
|