Costumes of Turkey Tarot

The superb designs on these tarot trumps and the 16 court cards in the pack are whole-length coloured figures of men and women in the national costumes of Turkey, with large inline roman numerals in the spaces at top and bottom of the trump cards. The (unnumbered) Fool card is a dancing harlequin with cymbals (from Commedia dell’Arte). The numeral cards are French-suited with no illustrations, just plain pips. Each costume card has a description printed down the sides.

The cards are contained in their original box with the title "Extra Feine Tarok-Karte mit Türkischen Nationaltrachten. Leipzig im Industrie Comptoir". In his PhD thesis Ömer Parlak, (2019, p.10) notes that “the image of the Turk has never been a static one: on the contrary, it has evolved and gained different meanings throughout its history in Europe”.

The Court Cards

Lettered at the feet of the knave of clubs (bottom left) is the name of the engraver Heinrich Müller: "H. Müller fec."

References

Parlak, Ömer Fatih, 2018. The image of the Turk in early modern board games and playing cards, doctoral thesis, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 2019.

Willshire, W. H.: A Descriptive Catalogue of Playing and Other Cards in the British Museum, (German 272), Trustees of the British Museum, 1876, reprint 1975.