Les Tarots, fortune-telling machine

At the turn of the 20th century, a number of Draconian regulations were enacted in France in an attempt to limit and tax the use of fruit machines in cafés. To circumvent those rules, machine manufacturers and café owners converted – or rather disguised – the devices as music boxes and horoscope dispensers. For the modest sum of 2 francs, this device was supposed to reveal the user’s lucky number and day of the week. Here, you can see a sphinx and Egyptian pyramids, imagery that was frequently utilized in fortune-telling since the 19th century. In the Western mind, these figures were evocative of ancient and mysterious knowledge, like a guarantee of quality predictions... even by a machine!