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Thomson-Leng Tarot

Published July 03, 1996 Updated March 24, 2023

The Thomson-Leng Tarot Cards were issued by the publishers of women's magazines during the 1930s. The cards are loosely based upon the Rider-Waite tarot.

1935 United Kingdom Alf Cooke / Universal Thomson-Leng Tarot
Thomson-Leng Publications Tarot booklet, 1935

Thomson-Leng Publications Tarot, 1935

The THOMSON-LENG Tarot Cards (and the Romany Fortune Telling Cards) were issued by the publishers of women's magazines during the 1930s. The cards are loosely based upon the Rider-Waite tarot, but also on other sources, and are becoming unusual to find. The name of the designer / illustrator is not known. Some of the designs reappear in Maritxu Guler's “Tarot Esoterico” published by Fournier, Spain.

Thomson-Leng Publications Tarot printed by Universal Playing Card Co Ltd, 1935

Above: Thomson-Leng Tarot cards manufactured by the Universal Playing Card Co. Ltd, Leeds, England c.1935 for Thomson-Leng Publications, Dundee & London. 78 cards + extra card + instruction booklet.

Thomson-Leng Publications Tarot, 1935
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By Simon Wintle

Member since February 01, 1996

Founder and editor of the World of Playing Cards since 1996. He is a former committee member of the IPCS and was graphics editor of The Playing-Card journal for many years. He has lived at various times in Chile, England and Wales and is currently living in Extremadura, Spain. Simon's first limited edition pack of playing cards was a replica of a seventeenth century traditional English pack, which he produced from woodblocks and stencils.


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