Tarot

1943 · réf. 135 — COMPLETE DIVINATION DECK OF ITALIAN TAROT "MODERN PIEMONTESE PATTERN" PRINTED IN GENOA AND USED DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR IN THE AREA OF THE "ITALIAN SOCIAL REPUBLIC" Tarocchi Piemontesi Genoa Italy Faustino Solesio 1944-1945. 78 Tarot cards 10.5 x 5.5 cm featuring chromolithographic images; backs of the cards adorned with a green diagonal pattern; rounded corners. A complete deck of the "Tarocchi" characterized by Italian suits: Spade Swords Bastoni Batons Coppe Cups and Denari Coins with Spade and Bastoni interlaced in a manner typical of these decks. The deck features double-headed court cards comprising four face cards—King Queen Knight and "Valet"—and ten numeral cards in each suit totaling 56 cards. It includes 21 double-ended "atouts" trump cards atutti in Italian numbered one to twenty-one and an extra card called "Il Matto" The Fool numbered 0. The trumps are captioned in Italian; the trumps and the suits are numbered with Arabic numerals inside or above a small image representing the suit. On the Ace of Coins is the name of the maker: "Faustino Solesio Genova – Casa Fondata nel 1774" House Founded in 1774 and the tax stamp. The Italian Social Republic RSI also known as the Republic of Salò was a puppet state created in the northern part of Italy during the Second World War from September 1943 to April 1945. Formally led by Benito Mussolini it was under the political and military control of Nazi Germany. The RSI represented the fascist regime's last attempt to maintain power in Italy with a precarious state structure and a context marked by partisan resistance and the Italian civil war. Faustino Solesio was an important printer of playing cards and tarot decks active in Genoa during the 19th and early 20th centuries. He was known for printing various types of cards including Tarocchi Piemontesi produced using woodblock printing techniques and colored with pochoir; Minchiate Fiorentine of which he was the last known producer around 1930. The Minchiate Fiorentine were created based on designs by the Modenese artist Pipein Gamba probably intended mainly for collectors since players had by then disappeared. He also produced playing cards with Italian suits. Conditions: Unused perfectly preserved. Provenance: On the Ace of Coins there is a tax stamp with the inscription "IX – Lire tre". This rare stamp was used during the period 1944-1945 when northern Italy was under the control of the Italian Social Republic RSI which used specific fiscal stamps. The Roman numeral did not represent the year according to the Fascist calendar as is often erroneously believed but indicated the city to which the deck belonged. The number XII represented the city of Milan XIII was Trento and IX present on this deck probably represented Genoa. Reference: Stuart Kaplan The Encyclopedia of Tarot Volume II U.S. Games Systems 1986. Peter Endebrock's Playing-card Pages. Faustino Solesio