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1JJ Tarot      1950      Switzerland                                                   Art Medium: Description: This deck printed by Muller in Switzerland was first distributed in the U.S. by Wehman Bros. of New York, dating the deck to the 1950's. It is encased in a dark blue/green "Wehman Bros./Broadway" matchbox style slide box. Most copies apparently are in a red box which has a Sun Card cover. The bottom part of the box is gold. This edition makes no mention of US. Games and one must assume this was earlier, and at some point after publication U.S. Games made some deal with Wehman to distribute the cards. US Games may then have had a box lid made to replace the slip cover. It was named "1JJ" for the use of Jupiter (V) and Juno (II) instead of the Pope and the Papess in order to take into account religious sensibilities. This is a standard for the Besancon style variation of the Marseille pattern, originally named for the French region where this practice is believed to have originated. The engraved linework is primarily of a brown-black sepia-tone, with bold coloring of bright red, golden yellow, blue and occasional green. Court cards have gloriously costumed traditional characters of Valet, Chevallier, Reine and Roi. Traditional card titles are in French. Smooth satin finish, with a reversible and borderless peach, black and blue tarotee/plaid card back.