Golden Art Nouveau Tarot

Beautiful deck. Cards shuffle easily, and read well. The size is perfect for smaller hands, and I like that! I am a professional reader, and really enjoy the ease of these cards.

The box: Box comes wrapped in plastic. No dented corners. Has the same beautiful gold foil as advertised for the cards. Embossed with delicate pattern overlaying the gold. Inside the box: Cards inside are also wrapped in plastic. Comes with an info card about their website which you can use to expand your knowledge on tarot through this specific deck but... at a price? Seems this membership/subscription costs money though since the card comes with a coupon code. Also included; a pamphlet in English, Italian, Spanish, French, and Portuguese; that describes what is happening on each card and a single sentence about how to interpret its meaning. (Kind of useless in my opinion.) All cards were present plus an extra card that is a reprint of the front of the box. The cards: The gold on the cards is just as advertised and as beautiful as the box. Embossed as well. Cards fit nicely in my giant hands. Bigger than a “regular” playing card size but smaller than my past tarot cards. Artwork is impeccable and beautifully printed on both the front and back. Both sides come lightly laminated. Cards are made with a lightweight card stock. Nice for easy shuffling although I think it could be a liiiiiiiiiittle bit heavier. There is a slight white boarder around them which helps minimize any bent corners taking away from their beauty. Final thoughts: I’m so happy. 10/10

This product arrived promptly and as expected with out issues. Arrived in a bubble mailer and undamaged. I was originally worried about the quality of the foil but the prints look fantastic against it and it doesn't seem cheap in the context of the artwork. It compliments the illustrations nicely and is not overly reflective while still maintaining that metallic finish. The images themselves are clean and crisp and hold the colors vibrantly. The card stock isn't as thick as some tarot cards, but it's nice and smooth as opposed to the textured look that playing cards can have. I think it'd have benefited from being a touch thicker, but is perfectly serviceable as is. Really the only thing that I have any issue with. The book it provides is in English, Italian, Spanish, French, and Portuguese. The descriptions of the cards are exactly that; more common descriptors of generalized events of the cards than direct translations of meaning, so a novice like myself will need a few supplemental sources to help learn meanings and intricacies. The box is guided in the same foil as the cards and is about the same quality as a regular deck of cards' box. The illustrations on it are of the same quality of the cards themselves and the text is thoughtfully placed to reduce visual noise and works well as a design and not just a hastily constructed sales pitch.

I really, really love this deck. I'm a big fan of the traditional Rider Waite deck, and this is very close to that one, but the art absolutely pops out at you and just seems alive in a way. Some cards feel like you could reach into them, almost. The whole thing is very beautifully done. My only real complaint is they don't shuffle too well if it's been humid at all. And I sometimes have to take the time to wipe them all down after many uses because otherwise they stick while shuffling. A small price to pay though. This was my third deck, I now have over 15 and this is my most used one. If you like the RW, this is a great addition to your collection because the art is so similar but can be more impactful, IMO. For me, the symbolism of the cards, beyond their basic understood meaning tend to stand out more.

Beautiful tarot cards very inspiring. Saw them on a YouTube video and fell in love immediately. So happy that I got them

Everyone is always upset these don't have the gold foil like the standard size BUT they are golden and reflective in their own way. Absolutely beautiful! I bought these before investing in the larger size and they are just absolutely gorgeous. I love the art style. Perfect size for my small hands!

Tarot is art, but it is a particular kind of art intended to be experienced in a unique manner. The star rating system doesn’t always work with Tarot decks, and this is the case here. First, I was very pleased with the quality. Lo Scarabeo certainly has their “golden” technique down. I have never been disappointed with that. Here, the patterned gold is applied more or less, depending on the card. Sometimes, as in Temperance XVII it is just a filigree against a color background. Usually, the slightly textured design is gold-on-gold. The light hits these in such a way there is usually no difficulty seeing the intricate design. The varying use of gold among cards seems well chosen for the designs. Compared to, say, their Golden Marseille deck, the use of gold is much more restrained and less of a distraction. The artwork is top-notch, both faithful to the original Rider-Waite-Smith imagery while exhibiting the particular style and skill of the artist. Unlike so many decks that are ruined by a clunker or two, every single card catches the right note. The illustrations are more realistic than the storybook style of Pixie Smith, with many figures bearing distinctive “portrait-like” faces. There is a lot of feeling in each card, and the scenes are energetic where appropriate. I don’t have much to say about the cards individually because they are all, again, very well done, each a little masterpiece that still fits into the deck as a whole. The lack of multilingual card titles is most welcome. In fact, there are no titles at all. This should not pose a problem for anyone familiar with Tarot (or willing to make the minimal investment in getting to know her). As for being “Art Nouveau,” I think it’s close enough. The intricate Golden filigree recalls Oswald Wirth’s border design in a distant fashion. The sinuous border designs have the style, too. The illustrations themselves are not particularly Art Nouveau, other than the appropriately muted colors, but the deck does capture the flavor. In fact, it’s nicer than other Art Nouveau decks, surpassed only by the Golden Tarot of Oswald Wirth, the one with just the Trumps. NOT the complete “Wirth“ deck with those awful pips. (A new complete Wirth deck is due out in June 2021, with pips based on some “restored tetrad” theory. Unfortunately, for some reason none of the pip cards have been revealed as of writing, so we’ll just have to wait.) So, the sting is in the tail, as the saying goes. Why would I ding this gorgeous, faithful interpretation of The English Deck a star? It’s not because of the box. I don’t take stars off book reviews because I don’t like the dust jacket either. If you’re going to keep a deck for use, there are good reasons to get a new box for it. Sturdy custom telescoping boxes can be found for twenty bucks and custom wooden ones for twice that. (I prefer the former, though, with a silk-lined bag to prevent scuffs.) I also don’t take into account LBWs. They’re expected, and can be not too awful if that’s all you have, but I pitch them as soon as I open a new deck. The real answer can be seen in comparing this deck, the original RWS, and the Conver Ben-Dov Tarot de Marseille. It can also be seen in the picture of the Tower XVI on display in my Catch of the Day stand. Up close, appreciating the details of the Tower, it is indeed gorgeous. But in a spread, or on display, those very details can interfere with the peculiar art Tarot represents. The same could be said about many the cards in this deck. Add that lovely gold, and now a reading can become more difficult. Reading by the Table in typical English positional spreads (such as the famous Celtic Cross) probably isn’t going to pose much of a problem. But try reading by Image in a more open way (which is usually not done with the English Deck anyway) and it can get visually muddled. Interfere with flow. The second issue may be subjective, but the classic decks have a reason for depicting figures in a way that you probably would not recognize them if you passed them on the street. I find The Empress III, for example, a bit distracting. I would recognize her if I ran into her at the grocery store. Some cards are so portrait-like, they are in danger of losing that traditional archetypal quality that seems to me to have very sound reasons behind it. (Add the English tradition of forward-facing figures looking you in the eye and the issue is magnified.) Related is the careful anatomical detail of the nudes. Obviously, there is a long tradition of nudity: Le Diable XV is quite crude in the Tarot de Marseille. Nudity can be symbolic. And there is nothing prurient here. The illustrations are tasteful. Yet, when the Star XVII woman looks like a particular woman rendered as a detailed, naturalistic nude, I find that distracting for the same reason the very distinctive features of the Page of Wands, for example, are distracting. I prefer to be looking at “a” person, not “that particular” person, if you know what I mean. But you see that that a lot in decks. Maybe I’ll get used to it, because I do admire the deck very much. Neither of these two objections reflect badly on the deck or its artist. In fact, these are some of my very favorite illustrations from a non-reading perspective. If you, dear reader, disagree with my prejudices, please feel free to add an extra star to my review! In closing, this is a gorgeous deck with effective and tasteful application of “gold” with a decidedly Art Nouveau vibe. I am very happy to own it, and it is worth its own custom box in my collection. I particularly like how the artist has remained faithful to the original RWS artwork even while expressing it in her own, different style. I admire that sort of respect among artists, found so seldom these days.

I have only had this deck a couple of days and have yet to do more than my two-card daily draw with it, but I can’t wait any longer to sing some praises. First off, Giulia Massaglia is an artist of incredible abilities combined with sensitivity for her subject. As it has shaken out for me through the decades of my involvement with the Tarot, I focus my actual workings with mostly RWS decks, or close derivatives. I tell you I am just nearly beyond words at what she’s pulled together here! All the tradition, the details, they’re all here but seen re-created with an entirely new view. This woman did an amazing thing, and I feel deep gratitude for her work. Then, I started to read the little book that accompanies the deck and found it more interesting than most of those, but it wasn’t until I turned the booklet over that I discovered the text had been written by Lunaea Weatherstone, fellow devotee of Brigid, and creator of two wonderful decks herself, Mystical Cats and Forest of Enchantment that I have. I was delighted all over again! I think Giulia and Lunaea should collaborate on a more detailed book to accompany this deck. It deserves it. I took longer than many to find this deck but find myself totally enchanted and feel it will be in my top three decks now and going forward.