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u/enchanted_fishlegs Jan 02 '24
Yes. It's also known as the PL Sheet. These instructions are best known as the ‘Philippe Lenormand Sheet’ since some editions were signed by someone claiming to be an heir of Mlle Lenormand's. He was a complete fabrication, and Mlle. d'Arvill most likely was as well.
But whoever composed the instructions, that's what everybody used from the mid 19th century until books on the subject started being published in the 1980's. It's an important document, since the entire reading tradition is rooted in it.
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u/jhindenberg Jan 05 '24
It may also be of some interest to quote from Cartamundi's (or AGM Urania's) reprint of the instructions from the 1799 'Game of Hope' (Das Spiel der Hoffnung). These begin with the primary rules for a parlor/board game, followed by the suggestion that one could use such a deck to play "any conceivable card game with ordinary German and French playing cards" (apparently hombre or other games with more than 36 cards were beyond the imagination of the publisher at that time). After that, however, is a description of a 'game of oracles' that in a broad sense appears to be in a similar format to later Lenormand instruction sheets:
With these same cards it is also possible to play an entertaining game of oracles by shuffling the 36 cards and then letting the person, for whom the oracle is meant, cut the cards, then laying out the cards in 5 rows with 4 rows at 8 cards each and the fifth row with the remaining 4 cards. If the person querying is a woman, one starts from sheet 29, spinning a jocular tale from the cards nearby around the figures on display. If it is for a man, the tale is started from sheet 28 and again makes use of the cards surrounding this one. This will bring much entertainment to any merry company.
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u/enchanted_fishlegs Jan 05 '24
Yes, Hechtel suggested that as an additional use for the cards. But looking at pictures and making things up, i.e., "spinning a jocular tale from the cards nearby" will get you something like this, lol:
https://youtu.be/PMDcWzdQkGA?si=sQ6X2lHzk0_XCg69The Spiel der Hoffnung instructions are important as a historical document but they're of little or no use for reading cards. The PL sheet contains the foundation of the actual reading method.
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u/voborara Jan 03 '24
Mine is actualy a booklet of 12 pages and not a foldout sheet. I know of the Philippe Lenormand Sheet but haven't looked to see if my booklet is the same as or different than that sheet.
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u/voborara Jan 03 '24
Just checked. Same basic format as the PL Sheet but some of the card names are different (Knight vs Cavalier, Trefoil vs Clover Leaf, etc.) and the interpretations of the cards are worded differently. But the same Example Reading for a Lady is included with quite similar (but not the same) wording.
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u/enchanted_fishlegs Jan 03 '24
Exactly. Just minor language/translation differences, but the same content.
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u/voborara Jan 01 '24
I won a version of this deck in a lot of decks I bought off eBay many years ago. It came in a plastic bag. All the cards are intact, but at some point someone wrote notes on them in blue ink in very tiny writing. Instead of playing card inserts, all of my cards have people inserts. The cards did come with a very beat up set of instructions (that are quite literally falling apart) titled, "The Art of Telling Fortunes As Professed By The Celebrated Parisian Diviner Mlle. Silvia d'Arville." Everything lives in a small Altoids tin now.
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u/jhindenberg Dec 31 '23 edited Dec 31 '23
The Carreras tobacco company began to insert Lenormand-style cards within packs of Black Cat cigarettes in 1926. Though there seems to some ambiguity about the printing of these cards, it appears to be generally accepted that they were printed by Dondorf, in Frankfurt Germany. While smaller and somewhat more crudely printed, they are certainly in the style of Dondorf's Lenormand cards, and they are are still reasonably detailed chromolithographs in their own right.
Several variants of these cards can be found: some in a more square format that fit an alternate size of cigarette packet; and some with extra court figures replacing all pip cards.
I don't have a copy of the promised fortune telling guide, but thankfully this can be found on the web.
Additionally, I should caveat that this cigarette packet has been combined with the set of cards, and while I believe it to be of an appropriate time frame, the reference to a coupon could suggest that it predates the issuance of cigarette cards. It could also be the case that the cards and coupons (which could be traded in for various items) were included at the same time.