Lenormand Decks

I thought it might be a good idea to post a deck review thread. That way, people who are new to Lenormand, or just want to try a different deck, can get information on what's available. So post your reviews of the decks you have here!

Don't worry if someone has already reviewed the ones you have, post your opinion anyway. That way there's more than one viewpoint.

French Cartomancy
I like the old Dondorf pattern best. I have a battered LS French Cartomancy that I usually carry with me. Like most LS copies, they've simply scanned an old deck, so it's pre-faded and pre-yellowed, it looks very soft and old. Here is an image:

and here are scans of the same cards taken from an antique deck that was apparently hardly ever taken out of the box:


I like the way the images have mellowed.

There are several drawbacks to this deck, though. For one thing, it's made by Lo Scarabeo, the cartomantic equivalent of WalMart, so the card stock is thin, cheap and horrible. Mine is starting to look like garbage all around the edges, and I've only had it a couple of years. It's also slightly larger than the standard Lenormand. I don't know if the deck alone is available any more, you might have to pay extra and get it in a set with a book that's basically only good for lighting fires or outhouse toilet paper. I didn't get the book but the LWB is excerpted from it, and that told me all I needed to know.

The above translates to Königsfurt Publishing House Dondorf Lenormand with Card Images. There's another version available with verses, so if you're interested in this one, make sure you get the Kartenabbildungen.


This one might be better for reading, since they've flipped the Lady. In the Dondorf pattern, the Lady and the Gent face the same way, so they can't look at each other or turn their backs to one another. So this is THE Dondorf for all those romance readings. :P It's also standard Lenormand-sized, i.e., small. Here are the French Cartomancy Lady and the Königsfurt Lady, respectively:

You can see that the deck has also been tweaked. The lines are sharper and heavier, the color values are more intense, but not at the level of that near day-glo antique deck in the previous post. They also use new card insets, which is not a totally bad idea. I had a hard time getting used to the original Dondorf courts, some if them look pretty ridiculous:

So in that sense, it's an improvement. And I really love the backs of these - snakes and flowers!!!

Maybe this one will become commonly known as the Serpent Flower Lenormand, or something along those lines.

The card stock, again, is thin, but it feels like better quality than LS's. All in all, this is a five-star deck. I normally don't like changes to old things, but whoever tweaked this deck knew what they were doing.

I recently bought the Hans Neupert illustrated deck.

I scanned some cards, but cannot for the life of me figure out how to get the images from the software into my message.

I bought the deck based on seeing the three cards here:

http://www.esoterikshopping.de/products/de/Kartenlegen-Tarot-Lenormand-Wahrsagekarten-Engelkarten/Lenormandkarten-Lenormand-Wahrsagekarten/Neues-Neupert-Lenormand.html

The Ship really appealed to me! I think The Sun is my favorite in this deck. I like the illustrations and the tints of the colors.

On the down side, in The Mice and The Fish cards it is a bit hard to pick out the illustrations. The Mice, I find, is too much dark blend-y background color with the lines of the drawing. The Fish themselves are a somewhat hard to pick out; they are blue against green sea water - I think the small boat above them stands out more. Since it is only two cards that are difficult this way, I'm sure familiarity will smooth out the recognition process.

Speaking of familiarity, I am glad this was not my first deck, beautiful as it is. I already have French Cartomancy and Piatnik, and I like that I became familiar with the images with big, easy-to-see playing card insets and card numbers on them.

I've seen discussions about decks with the dark/light clouds on different sides - this has the dark clouds on the right.

Can the Man and Woman face each other? If placed 28-29, their bodies are facing opposite directions and they can be seen to look over their shoulders at one another.

The Child is a card that rarely appeals to me. I like this picture a lot - And is that a mother pushing her baby in a carriage, or is it a little girl pushing her doll in a carriage? :-) You can form your own opinion; I like seeing it open to both interpretations.

Many of the illustrations appear to be patterned after the Dondorf tradition, but not all! The pen and ink illustration and vivid colors give it a different look.

The size of the deck is the same as Piatnik, so it fits easily in the hands.

I was ordering the Bärtschi deck and took a chance that I would like the 33 cards in this deck that I had not already seen. I'm really glad I bought it!

ETA: Card Back (not very attractive IMO) and seven card faces can currently be seen on this home page:
http://www.lenormand-wahrsagekarten.de/
And you can see individual cards - choose one as an oracle, or read the display when you mouse over if looking for something specific here:
http://www.lenormand-wahrsagekarten.de/tageskarte-seyffert-verlag-lenormand.php

My cards are tinted darker than they display on my monitor (YMMV); I do like these cards - they are charming -but would like them even better if they were a bit lighter.

I was admiring that one, it's pretty! Have you tried uploading the images to photobucket or servimg? Then you could just copy and paste the image codes here. the Piatnik is another great deck, all those pictures of the Austrian countryside are gorgeous and it's got that Piatnik quality. Mine is holding up very well and I've used it a few years longer than the French Cartomancy. And the picture on the box is hilarious!

That's right. It's The Law.

Looking at the straight dress on the Lady in that deck, I'd put it at about 1920 or so - still old and a lovely period, but LS isn't reliable for history. even though they're supposedly "experts".. I remember some advertising blurb on their site saying that the Sibilla Della Zingara was over 100 years old, but some of the women in that deck have bobbed hair and 1920's clothing, as well.

Kapherus wrote:
For example, if card 02 Clover falls in the first position (past) in the first column (feelings) and it appears upright, the meaning is: "You had a distressed childhood and are in search of security as well as love."

If the same card falls reversed in the exact same position, the meaning is: "You suffered from betrayal that hurt you deeply, making you cautious and disenchanted."

It's an interesting idea, but I can't see how anyone could possibly memorize all of the possible meanings for all 36 cards.

Kaph

Also it seems that whatever the card position is - reversed or not - it's a kind of bad thing...

Thanks for sharing the spread !
Stanze

I don't see what any of that has to do with the Clover at all. They probably picked random interps from a LWB that came with one of their defunct Tarots and just changed the titles. What do you expect from people who expect us to believe that something called "Dondorf" is French?

The only French Petit Jeu I've seen is the Grimaud, and that's just a mangled Grand Jeu with Grand Jeu scenes, not the Rider, Clover, &c. though the Petit Jeu titles are written in the upper right corners. 9H, for example, is titled "The Cavalier" but depicts Hercules battling the lion. I think this hybrid deck is a later development. All of the 19th century Petit Jeu Lenormands I have seen have been German. That doesn't equal formal research, but...

You fan out the cards face down and let the querent pick cards, don't you Kaph? You must find those LS child backs especially irksome. The Gypsy Lenormand doesn't have any kind of insets, do you think you'd get along with the art? Another alternative would be verses in another language, I've found that verses aren't annoying and sing-songy when I can't read them easily!

You'd probably like the Astrologisches. I had to sell it owing to financial constraints, but the stars and planets in the borders are tiny enough to be decorative, no playing card insets, and it's a gorgeous deck.

I fell in love with the Bartschi, myself. It's big, but if it weren't all the wonderful details would be lost. I'm a complete sucker for folk-art/primitive art when it's done well, and she really did.