Lo Zodiaco
French-suited fortune-telling pack with distinctive designs by Italian artist Sergio Ruffolo.
Sergio Ruffolo (1916-1989) was an Italian designer, painter and sculptor. He created several sets of playing cards as well as a pack of Tarot cards, the Tarocco Indovino. That Tarot pack included 52 of the designs found in this fortune-telling pack. The figures wear medieval garb but are drawn in a distinctive, modern style using relatively soft colours. The card meaning is given top left, upright and reversed, in Italian. The card value and suit are shown top right. In addition, the cards are numbered 1 to 52 bottom left. There are two consultant cards, one male and one female, and one double-backed card. The back design features all 12 signs of the Zodiac against a pale blue background. The same back design was used on the Tarot cards but with a different background colour. See the box►
Above: Lo Zodiaco fortune-telling pack designed by Sergio Ruffolo and manufactured by Dal Negro, Treviso, Italy, 1979. 52 cards + 2 ‘consultant’ cards + 1 double-backed card + 1 title card + 36-page booklet in Italian, in tuck box. Size: 62 x 106 mm.
By Roddy Somerville
France • Member since May 31, 2022
Roddy started collecting stamps on his 8th birthday. In 1977 he joined the newly formed playing-card department at Stanley Gibbons in London before setting up his own business in Edinburgh four years later. His collecting interests include playing cards, postcards, stamps (especially playing cards on stamps) and sugar wrappers. He is a Past President of the Scottish Philatelic Society, a former Chairman of the IPCS, a Past Master of the Worshipful Company of Makers of Playing Cards and Curator of the WCMPC’s collection of playing cards. He lives near Toulouse in France.
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