Ye Witches’ No.62 Fortune Cards
Ye Witches Fortune Telling Cards published by the United States Playing Card Co., 1896. 52 cards + Joker + extra card in box.

Ye Witches’ No.62 Fortune Cards
This late nineteenth century fortune-telling deck has illustrated pip cards suggesting their divinatory meanings. In some instances the pips are actually part of the design, which makes “Ye Witches” a partial Transformation Fortune-Telling deck. Some of the period dresses in the illustrations are interesting. An accompanying booklet contains the rules for interpreting the cards and how to use the deck in more detail. The court cards are standard except that their hair is filled in black. The Joker has an image of a horseshoe, rabbit's foot, three four leaf clovers and a broken wishbone. Click here to see the 2019 facsimile►



Above: Ye Witches Fortune Telling Cards published by the United States Playing Card Co., 1896. 52 cards + Joker + extra card in box. Available with plain or gold edges and a variety of different back colours. The back shows a coven of witches with a steaming cauldron, surrounded by interlacing dragons and bats. The divinatory interpretations are not printed on the cards, so it was necessary to memorise them, or to improvise. The illustrations are suggestive enough so as to give a hint as to the meaning. Images from the collection of Rod Starling.
Rules courtesy of Adam West-Watson
Additional Images





NOTE: "Ye" is pronounced "the". The 'y' in 'ye' is not the modern letter 'y' found in 'you', but a mis-translation of the old runic symbol equivalent to the modern letter pair 'th' found in words such as 'the'.
REFERENCES
Dawson, Tom & Judy: The Hochman Encyclopedia of American Playing Cards, U.S. Games Systems Inc., 2000

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.
Related Articles

Get Decked
Black and white cartoons devised by Sam Wagner with help from artist Lindsay Bevington.

Beowulf
Jackson Robinson's Beowulf playing card deck inspired by the Old English pagan poem.

Tarot hiéroglyphique égyptien
The design of the cards draws inspiration from various religious and philosophical traditions merged...

Keith Haring playing cards
Energetic graffiti images by the American artist Keith Haring.

Oracle Rock
Cartomantic set depicting rock and pop stars, designed by La Rata, with a book by Virginie Despentes...

Eki karuta
Japanese fortune-telling cards based on I Ching, with bold, modern designs.

The Tarot of Meditation – Yeager Tarot
Marty Yeager’s original Tarot of Meditation from 1975, republished later by U.S. Games Systems, Inc....

Adobe Deck
The first digitally-produced deck of cards.

Seminole Wars deck
Seminole Wars deck by J. Y. Humphreys, Philadelphia, c.1819.

The UCR Deck
Giant-size cards designed by Thomas Sanders to advertise courses and facilities at UCR.

Fredericks & Mae playing cards
A rainbow pack from the design team of Fredericks & Mae and Benjamin English.

Red Hat Society playing cards
Society that encourages women in their quest to get the most out of life.

Mountain Dream Tarot
Groundbreaking Tarot created by Bea Nettles, using photographs and photo montage.

Junior Playing Cards
Child-friendly versions of standard English pattern cards designed by Louie Mantia, Jr.

Last Call Cats playing cards
Bar-crawling cats, designed by artists Arna Miller and Ravi Zupa.

Mademoiselle Lenormand
XIX century ‘Mlle Lenormand’ cartomancy deck by Daveluy, Bruges.
Most Popular
Our top articles from the past 28 days