Primal Lenormand
Reproduction of early Lenormand deck originally designed as The Game of Hope.
by Alexander Gluck · 2015
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The record
The Primal Lenormand is a reproduction of one of the earliest complete Lenormand decks, courtesy of the British Museum. Originally conceived as a game The Game of Hope which is somewhat reminiscent of a Monopoly-and-Snakes-and-Ladders hybrid, played with dice, and with the added attraction of a cash jackpot. Eventually the game fell from favour and faded from memory. Some 50 years after its initial appearance the deck resurfaced, this time as fortune telling cards. This is a deck of 36 cards measuring 80 x 110 mm a little broader than most contemporary Lenormand cards. The card stock is excellent solid yet a little flexible, with a smooth, low sheen finish. These cards are easy to handle and shuffle evenly. The print quality is excellent, with all the age marks, smudges, and quirks of the original deck clearly reproduced. The original artwork was most likely done on carved wooden printing blocks (as was the original RWS deck), with the basic image in black on white, and colours overlaid afterwards. The palette is limited to half a dozen colours red, pink, yellow, green, brown, blue. The artwork would have been current at the time of publication (1799) and to our modern
The cards
