Golden Art Nouveau Tarot (Golden Art Nouveau Tarot, 1)

Gorgeous cards. Shuffles like a dream and the images are beautiful but not too far off from the traditional tarot images.

What a gorgeous deck this is! I love art nouveau, and had first tried the Mucha tarot but sadly that deck and I didn't quite jibe. So I was excited to see a new art nouveau Smith-Waite clone being published by Lo Scarabeo. The deck looks great in photos, but it's ten times more beautiful in person. The art is gorgeous and crisply drawn, the colors lush and rich, and the gold detail is stunning. Despite all this, my favorite part is how expressive the faces of the characters are. There is so much movement, emotion and passion in these cards. The deck is also an excellent and clear reader. It will work beautifully for anyone who wants to study the Smith-Waite tarot style but doesn't quite love the original art style. It's also an excellent deck for more advanced readers.There are a couple of downsides to the cards that it helps to be aware of before you buy. First, the card stock, while not the flimsy disaster of a stock that Llewelyn uses, is still on the thin side. I love thicker card stock, but I compromised here because the pros outweighed this particular con for me. Another big concern is representation and diversity. Simply put, there is none. The deck follows the original images of Smith-Waite, and that means no people of color, no body diversity, no diversity of ability, and strictly cis/hetero imagery. Depending on what you are looking for from your decks, this may be something to consider. Obviously it's ultimately a matter of personal choice whether or not you make this deck a part of your collection. The tuck box, while pretty, is quite flimsy and won't last for long; you will need to make alternative arrangements for keeping your cards safe and secure. And lastly, while this isn't really that important, one wishes that the deck had been edged in gold. However, at this price point it's something that is quite minor. I personally do plan on edging my deck soon.Overall, a stunning work of art and a deck that is both a great learning tool and an excellent reader. Highly recommended!EDIT: I edged my deck using the Tsukineko Brilliance Dew Drop ink pad in Galaxy Gold (sold here on Amazon and craft stores such as Michaels and Jo-Anns). The result is a lovely antique gold edge finish that looks gorgeous with the deck!

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!

These small cards are just right to travel with me. I love the illustrations. Similar symbols to Rider-Waite, but in a style I adore. Cute little box. Multi-lingual simple introduction booklet. Cards are only numbered, so study up. No gold, but great for the price!

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.

A beautifully rendered Tarot deck. Gorgeous.

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.