The international pattern- an overview

Behold, four Kings, in Majesty rever'd,
With hoary Whiskers and a forky Beard;
And four fair Queens whose Hands sustain a Flow'r,
Th' expressive Emblem of their softer Pow'r;
Four Knaves in Garbs succinct, a trusty Band;
Caps on their heads, and Halberds in their hand;
And particolour'd Troops, a shining Train,
Draw forth to combat on the Velvet Plain.

(Alex. Pope- The rape of the lock)

Now that we have been through six decks of the international pattern , it is time to compare them all togeteher. The following dizen images would very much speak for themselves in describing the characteristics of this pattern;

"cego"( animal tarot) , ASS

"cego"( animal tarot) , ASS . 54c.
( if'you dont know what a tarock deck is, see http://anthonylesq.blogspot.com/2012/02/tarock-ass.html. )
Sometime in the 18thc, a german maker tried to revamp the tarock/ot deck. Instead of putting the standard imagery in the trumps, he replaced it with a series of animals, and called it the tiertarock ( ger. - 'animal tarot/tarock".)
  Now, several patterns to this theme developed, but eventualy, a pattern known to some as the "alder-cego" won out, and is the deck that is shown here.
The deck has exactly the same composition as an ordianary tarock deck, save that the rural images on the trumps have been replaced by those of animals. The trumps sometimes have a sort of contrast of the animals between them, most often male/feamle  (the 21 has a cock on one side and a hen on the other. )
 The sküs ( fool) is placed here with the 21, as in the game of cego, it is the highest card.