The Suit of Swords

On this page, you can see the Suit of Swords for Tarocchino Arlecchino and Arlecchino’s Augmented Arcana.

This suit features classic motley Harlequin costumes with a serpentine theme, inspired by the Bolognese Ace of Swords (a serpent coiling back on itself). The library copy of the Bolognese tarocchino that I used as a reference was missing almost all of the Swords pip cards. To “reconstruct” the designs, I referred to the Ten from this incomplete historical deck to get an idea of the composition and the look of the points and hilts of the swords. I also looked at a more modern double-headed version of the Bolognese deck – the main thing I took from this was the gold plates over the sword crossings. They were all decorated with a similar face in that deck, but I changed mine to miniatures loosely inspired by the Etteilla keywords. My other reference was the 19th century Sopraffino tarot, which inspired the pink ribbons.

King of Swords
King of Swords (description)
Queen of Swords
Queen of Swords (description)
Knight of Swords
Knight of Swords (description)
Knave of Swords
Knave of Swords (description)
Ace of Swords
Ace of Swords (description)
2 of Swords
Two of Swords (description)
3 of Swords
Three of Swords (description)
4 of Swords
Four of Swords (description)
5 of Swords
Five of Swords (description)
6 of Swords
Six of Swords (description)
7 of Swords
Seven of Swords (description)
8 of Swords
Eight of Swords (description)
9 of Swords
Nine of Swords (description)
10 of Swords
Ten of Swords (description)