Would you believe, this is the deck I learnt Tarot with, and it was a few years before I realised you could get a deck with pictures all the way through. This variation of the classic Marseilles deck was very popular in the 1970’s as it was often packed with Stuart Kaplan’s introductory book of the Tarot and was one of the few readily available decks at the time. It was distributed in the UK by Waddington’s games, so it was readily available as there were very few Tarot decks available. There is a little tale about this. I was in hospital at Great Ormand Street when this was purchased for me by my parents around Bloomsbury in those early years. The shop in question was (possibly) Atlantis Bookshop on Museum Street. Atlantis Bookshop with the British Museum became a regular venture when I was occasionally allowed out. The deck with the book Tarot Cards for Fun and Fortune Telling and came with a fold out Celtic Cross paper sheet. My parents would not be the sort of people that would wonder into Atlantis, but I had a fascination with horror films even at a young age (I was about 10!). Anyway, the next day after giving me the set my Mum recalled that she came in to be told by one Spanish cleaning lady that I had ‘the gift of the eye’. As she came to my hospital bed to see nurses having their cards read by me.
Inside this petite box you’ll find a tiny set of the ever-popular Tarot of the Gnomes. Known as perfectors of mechanical devices, it is no surprise that the Gnomes’ Tarot is the smallest deck in the world. The wit and wisdom of the Gnomes is condensed and captured in these thumbnail-sized Major Arcana cards. Carry this deck for quick, single card consultations and to ensure that the luck of the Gnomes is always with you.
The companion booklets for most Lo Scarabeo decks are in five languages: English, Spanish, French, Italian, and German