February Month Ahead: A Grand Tableau With The Traditional Austro-Hungarian Bohemian or "Gypsy" Deck

Monday 3rd Feb 2025

Now we’re in February, we’ll be going more into depth this month with a deck that is linked primarily to both the Bavarian Kipper cards and the much earlier (and larger) Italian classic, the Vera Sibilla. Very popular in central and Eastern Europe, it’s the traditional 32 or 36-Card Austro-Hungarian Bohemian Fortune Telling Cards often known as the “Zigeuner” or “Gypsy/Gipsy” Cards (more on the dodginess over what-to-call-it issue tomorrow, but I’m sure you can guess the problem. )

You’ll see as we go on, I’m sure, the strong links between this and the Kipper cards we covered last month and note that these cards can be considered a precursor to the Kipper deck

I don’t have a great variety of decks to play with on this, just a couple. and they’re both very similar, but the one we’re using today is my favourite and much “classier”: the 1901 version from classic Austrian card manufacturer Piatnik.

Since it’s the start of a new month I’ve pulled a full 9 x 4 Grand Tableau for this one today.…