Lo Zodiaco

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.