March 2025

We have never collected Tarot decks, but back in the late 1990's we have bought 3 Tarot decks by artists that we liked at that time: Dali, Maddonni and Zac. Just to complete the playing card collection of these artists, but that was it. That is, until years later we saw a Tarot deck on display at the playing card museum in Issy-les Moulinaux, a suburb of Paris. Immediately taken by the designs, the deck ended up on our wish list. It has taken a long time, but finally I can cross it off and share this wonderful deck with you at this spot.

I won the deck during an auction of a part of the Chris Rayner collection. Too bad that it came without the original box, as later research showed that there have been several different editions. Most common seems to be the Tarok version, with 56 cards. However, this deck is the Tarot version, with 78 cards. So I was wondering how it would have been advertised on the box. The answer came on the accompanying leaflet. No mentioning of Tarot, but the new game of Pow Wow was presented on the box.
The deck was first published as "The American Cards" by August Petrtyl & Son from Chicago in 1922. But it is often referred to as the Green Spade deck. There's no mentioning of a printer on the cards, but they are of good quality, even now still crisp and flat, with rounded corners. The colour lithographic printing is well done and the edges are "gilded" in a nice soft green colour. All this points towards a printing company, which was at least experienced in the production of playing cards.
Although the deck is considered to be rare, it seems to have been around for a long time. The first edition dates as 1922 and mentions August Pertrtyl & Son as publisher, but in the early 1930's an other name appears as publisher. On Ruby Lane Steve Bacon shows a leaflet where the Publicity Art Studios from Chicago is mentioned as publisher with a copyright date of 1934 and in the Cary Collection Mr. Keller describes a Tarok version, also published by Publicity Art Studios but apparently with a copyright date of 1937. 
And not only the publisher's name has changed. On the Potter&Potter auction site, I found an image where the deck is presented with a different, more generic back design. This deck mentions August Petrtyl & Son as publishers and, as far as I can make out, the leaflet seems to have 1922 as copyright date. Click HERE to see both Steve's and Potter&Potter's pictures and read my note on Hochman TA4 (p.242).

About the name of the artist: in the Hochman (p. 285) he's mentioned as August Petryl and in the Cary collection (USA 265, p 163) as August Petrytyl. And even on the leaflet from Steve Bacon's deck the Publicity Art Studios mentions him as Petryl. Maybe his original Czech name evokes dyslexia, but none of them is correct.
August PETRTYL (July 8, 1867 - November 8, 1937) has probably designed the deck in 1921, as the copyright date at the bottom of the backs suggests, but the first publication was done in 1922. The artist was born in Bohemia and together with his brothers and sister he was brought to the US by his parents when he was barely 1 year old. He grew up in Chicago and probably got his artistic education at the Palette and Chisel Academy of Fine Art. He specialized in historic figures and also built a reputation as an illustrator of books, such as the trilogy about Alexander the Great by Marshall Monroe Kirkman. In 1902 he shortly ventured into landscaping, when he designed the expansion of the Bohemian National Cemetery of Chicago, where in the end he was buried on November 11, 1937.

With the Pow Wow (Tarot) version of 78 cards all kinds of games can be played. Taking out the trumps, knights and if necessary some pips makes games that use 32, 40 or 52 cards possible and if needed a joker can be added. So no problem to adjust for games like Jass, Hombre, Bridge or Poker. Of course it can be turned into a Tarock deck too by leaving out some pips. When you have this version there's no need to buy the Green Spade Set (as pictured in colour in the Hochman, 53 cards) or the Tarok deck (54 cards). Both were also offered separately by August Petrtyl & Son. In the Hochman (p.285) the Tarok version is incorrectly presented as consisting of 54 cards plus a joker. However, in Tarok each suit has 8 cards (4 courts and 4 pips) and the joker is already part of the 22 trump cards, in total 54 cards. 
Tarot is nowadays mostly associated with fortune telling, but originally it was and still is a game. In France it's still popular and Tarot championships, regional and national, are played each year.

It's a no-revoke deck, with green spades, pink hearts, black clubs and yellow diamonds. A nice feature are the small cards in the four corners. They have the same design as the main design, thus making it easy for players, either left or right handed, to recognize their hand while holding the cards in a fan.

Well... 'nough said.... ENJOY!

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