The tarot called Cagliostro is based upon an older, more classic approach to the Tarot, in a lot of ways it resembles the Tarot of Marseilles.  Looking through the deck a second time, I see a lot of resemblances to a traditional poker deck as well.  My immediate, and strong, impression is that the Major Arcana of this deck must have been designed at a different time from the Minor Arcana, or perhaps by a different artist.  It certainly has a different style.

The Cagliostro deck was published in 1912, three years after the Rider-Waite Tarot was published.  A fire shortly afterwards seems to have destroyed records.  What survived the fire indicated that a Bruno Sigon was the painter for this deck.  Based on the differences in style of the artwork between the Major and Minor Arcana, I wonder if he was the only one.

The Major Arcana follow the Egyptian style as prescribed by Papus, a famous French occultist of the time.  The ordering of the trumps also follows these teachings, placing the Fool (seen in this deck as The Madman) at the end of the Majors instead of the beginning.

Upon each card in the deck are printed the title, the number of the position the card has in the deck (numbered 1 through 78) and the name and dates of the corresponding signs of the Zodiac.  In addition, abbreviated meanings of the cards in both upright and reversed positions are printed on the cards.  The wording of the meanings has a very "old-world" feel to it.

 The Minor Arcana have playing card suits of Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds and Spades, with traditional courts of Kings, Queens, Knights and Pages, though the pages aren't titled.  The figures in the court cards are presented in the split double style of typical playing cards.  The numbered cards are true pips, in fact the designs on them so strongly resemble the pips from the Marseilles tarot, they were surely copied from it.

The deck itself is smaller than standard, though larger than a poker deck, and the cards shuffle easily and flex well.  You could almost take the Major Arcana out of this deck and play poker with the rest.  The Majors might be nice to use for Major Arcana-only reading.  Something I am curious about, for all that the deck is named the Cagliostro Tarot, there is nowhere in either the deck, the little booklet, or the packaging, any mention of Alessandro di Cagliostro, the famous occultist from whom this deck surely draws its name.  I am interested to discover why.

Overall, this is a nice choice for someone who likes working with "classic" styled decks, or for the collector of rare and old fashined decks.  It's an interesting take on an older idea.

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Review Copyright 1998 by Gina M. Pace