Tarot de Louttre B

Creator(s): Marc-Antoine Bissiere
Date: 1981
Country: France
Publisher: Grimaud 
Number of Cards: 78
ISBN:    
Type: Marseilles
Reference: Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol. III, pp.320, 323

Notes:
Louttre B is the pseudonym of the French painter Marc-Antoine Bissiere (1926-2012). The deck was published in 1981 by Musee des Arts Decoratifs in cooperation with Grimaud on the opening of an exhibition called "Antique Playing Cards - A Collectors Dream". The cards originally were part of a book called "Le Tarot des familles", which was printed in a limited edition of only 75 copies. The book contains hand painted engravings of the cards with explanations.

The deck shows no human figures, but only the objects taken from Tarot de Marseilles. The images of this deck play with symmetry in various aspects. The three cards, where the symmetry of Roman numbers allows it, have mirror-inverted images. That leads to the first impression, that both The Emperor and The Lovers have number VI and Sun and Fool both have number XXI.

La Force (Strength) has no explicit number, but the number XI is part of the image.

Card titles are in French. The suits are d'Epee, Baton, Coupe, and Deniers. The courts are Valet, Cavalier, Reine, and Roi.  The backs are reversible. The 78 cards plus titlecard and a French only lwb came in a lidded cardboard box.

Tarot Essentiel

Creator(s): Andrea Wedell, Francoise Bitton
Date: 2010
Country: France
Publisher: Arcadia Editions
Number of Cards: 22
ISBN: 978-2913-0197-13   
Type: Marseilles
Reference: artist's page





Notes:
The Tarot Essentiel uses abstract paintings of Andrea Wedell and came with a book in French titled La Legende du Tarot, which is written by Francoise Bitton.

Most of the arcana are renamed, the number of the card is part of the image. The cards are based on the Marseille Tarot but abstractly...so they are open to interpretation.

The art is oil on canvas, 39 x 28 inches. Wedells paintings were exhibited in Paris in March 2010.

Le Tarot du Chien

Creator(s): Carole Sedillot, Claude Trapet
Date: 2002
Country: France
Publisher: De Vecchi
Number of Cards: 78
ISBN: 2-7328-3380-0 
Type: Marseilles
Reference: tarotpassages








Notes:
Carole Sedillot has written on alchemy and Jungian psychology as well as on tarot. She and Trapet already collaborated in 1989 to produce their first edition of the Tarot du Chat.

The deck features various dog breeds on the major arcana and court cards. Pip cards are decorated with dog symbols.

 The suits are color coded.  Wands are yellow with red flames for fire. Cups are pink, with water bowls, swords are light blue and discs are yellow with a floral design.

Sedillot doesn't merely intend to create an art deck with a cute substitution of canine figures. As she states in her book, her intent is to present the concept of the dog as the constant companion on the Fool’s journey. To accomplish this, she has cast the canine as the central figure of the cards, presented to the Fool in order to assist, teach and enlighten him as he proceeds on his journey.

The art is pen drawings with coloured pencil. The deck came with a book in French only.

The first edition was published by Noeme in 1992. 

Le Tarot du Chat

Creator(s): Carole Sedillot, Claude Trapet
Date: 1993
Country: France
Publisher: Jacques Grancher
Number of Cards: 78
ISBN: 2-733-90415-9 
Type: Marseilles
Reference: aeclectic 

 





Notes: 
The Major Arcana and Court Cards have cats that are anthromorphised while the Pips are regular cats. Baton (Wands ) show scenes of a Siamese type cat with flaming torches. Denier ( Coins) are depicted with scenes of a gray and brown Tabby Cat and the coins are actually flowers. Coupes (Cups) show a white Persian type of cat near a pool of water . L’ Epee (Swords) depict a gray cat with swords and the “blade” is a gray cat paw with the claws .

The general style is more Marseille than Waite-Smith. The art is pen drawings with coloured pencil. The backs are solid purple. The cards are shrinkwrapped (no box) and came with a softcover instruction book (text in French only).

There was an earlier Majors only edition published by Editions Jean Boully in 1989. 

Grand Etteilla

Creator(s): Etteilla
Date: 1826, 1970
Country: France
Publisher: Grimaud
Number of Cards: 78
ISBN: 
Type: Etteilla
Reference: Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol. II, p. 409








Notes:
Etteilla was the pseudonym of the french occultist Jean-Baptiste Alliette (1738 – 1791). In around 1770, he had created the Petit Etteilla, a cartomantic divinatory deck based on playing cards for the French card game piquet (32+1 cards). The Grand Etteilla was a purpose-built divinatory tarot deck designed by Etteilla around 1788. It was Etteilla's own deck, he did not publish any tarot decks during his lifetime, but some of the card images were used as illustrations in Etteilla's books on tarot. This type is referred to by card historians as Grand Etteilla I

The first known variant of Grand Etteilla I appeared in 1826, published by Pierre Mongie l'aine, an important Parisian bookseller and publisher. This deck was packaged in a green original box that has a label reading Le Grand Jeu de Cartes Soixtante-Dix-Huit Tarots, pour Dire La Bonne Aventure. L'Art de tirer les Cartes et les Tarots, ou l'explication de ce jeu, est en I vol. in-18, et coute 3 fr. pris a Paris, et  3 fr. 50 c. franc de port, chez Mongie aine, libraire, Boulevard Italien, No. 10. The hand colored cards show the same design as this Grimaud deck, except that there is no sun on card 1 and the figure on 14 Force Majeur are nude on this deck and clothed on the Grimaud deck. The 1826 version has blank backs.

It's interesting to compare the Dusserre Grand Etteilla (not to be confused with the Dusserre Tarot Égyptien) with the Grimaud Grand Etteilla. The Dusserre has rounded corners,
the older keywords and is a photoreproduction deck. The Grimaud has newer (revised) card keywords. The Dusserre's keywords are French only; the Grimaud's are bilingual French and English.

A variation, which differed only slightly from Grand Etteilla I, was published in 1838 by Simon Bloquel, this variation is referred to as Grand Etteilla II.

Like the Tarot de Marseille Etteilla’s deck has twenty-two Major Arcana and fifty-six Minor Arcana. But, aiming to restore the purported ancient Egyptian elements, Etteilla reinterpreted the Majors; he re-ordered them and often applied radically innovative iconography and new names. He did so in part because, as he explained in his book, the first seven Trumps should depict a creation myth. In addition, Etteilla first publicly assigned the zodiacal signs and Four Elements to selected cards. The Minors were also redesigned, but the changes were far less radical than with the Majors.

Le Nouveau Tarot de Marseille

Creator(s): Colette Silvestre-Haeberle
Date: 1999
Country: France
Publisher: France Jeux Productions
Number of Cards: 78
ISBN: 3-114524-218456   
Type: Marseilles
Reference: Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol. IV, pp. 695, 698

  

Notes:

This deck is based on the Tarot of Marseilles, with modern drawings that recall the tarot designs of Oswald Wirth. It is created in pen and watercolour, subtly coloured with primarily russet or orangy yellow backgrounds.

A booklet by Colette Sylvestre-Haeberle accompanies the deck, but the artist is unidentified.

Le Grand Tarot Universel

Creator(s): Bruno de Nys
Date: 2005
Country: France
Publisher: self-published
Number of Cards: 78
ISBN: 978-2-9519933-1-5   
Type: Marseilles
Reference: artist's page

Notes:
Bruno de Nys is a medium and clairvoyant, who wrote several books about tarot.

The cardstock of this deck is good. The colors are bright.

The Majors have modernized images, but are still close to the classic Marseilles Tarot. The Minors look like someone took very exactly the Grimaud TDM line drawings and colored them per hand, on many cards the brush stroke goes over the line drawings.

Mine is from the 3rd edition.

Tarot de Marseille (Dusserre)

Creator(s): Paul Marteau 
Date: 1930*, 1990
Country: France
Publisher: Dusserre
Number of Cards: 78
ISBN:
Type: Besancon / Marseilles
Reference: Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol. I, p. 138

 

Notes:
This is an exact photoreproduction (except that the 2 of Coins has Dusserre written on it instead of Grimaud) of the Paul Marteau Deck from 1930, which is part of the collection of the French Biblioteque Nationale. It has the fleurs-de-lys on the four of coins (not the tulip as later the editions by Grimaud) and on the magicans table are no dice but only coins.

The cards have the red stamp of the Bibliothéque national at the bottom. The cardboard used is thinner and the colors are lighter than in the Grimaud edition.

Grand Tarot Belline

Creator(s): Edmond Billaudot
Date: 1863, 1966
Country: France
Publisher: Grimaud
Number of Cards: 78
ISBN: 
Type: Marseilles
Reference: A Wicked Pack of Cards pp. 202-203   

Notes: 

Le Grand Tarot Belline was drawn by hand using pen and ink, around 1863 by "Magus Edmond" (Edmond Billaudot,1829-1881). The decks name comes from the French cartomancer Marcel Belline, who years later discovered the deck, sold the printing rights to Grimaud and then donated the originals to the Musée des Arts et Traditions Populaires in Paris. Grimaud published them 1966 with many reprints there after. The earlier editions can be distinguished by the more generously rounded corners.

The deck is using ideas from Etteilla, Éliphas Leví, and Paul Christian. Each card is divided into four sections, upper and lower bands, and upper and lower fields. Written on the upper band is Leví's mundane kabalistic letter for the Majors, the Gematria number and  Paul Christian astrological correspondences. The Red Key-Words are the same as in  Jeu Du Grand Etteilla. The bottom band of the card contains the card name, the bottom field of the card contains a proverb specific to the card.

The gilt edged cards are large (159mm x 75mm), they came in a  black box, with golden title and red velure interior, complete with red ribbon to lift the cards.

There is a Translated Documentation of the cards by Paula Goodman, with an introduction by Dan Pelletier at Tarot Garden.

Cartomancie de l'An 2000

Creator(s): Pino Zac
Date: 1981
Country: France
Publisher: Grimaud
Number of Cards: 22
ISBN:   
Type: Marseilles
Reference: Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol. III, pp.556, 557

Notes:
Pino Zac is the pseudonym of the Italian cartoonist Giuseppe Zaccaria. He studied architecture in Rome, before going into illustrating. He made his debut in 1950, with Gato Filippo – the first comic strip ever to be carried by a newspaper in Italy.

The images of this deck show a humorous depiction of life in the year 2000, as envisioned by artist Pino Zac in 1981. Illustrations are rendered in a cartoon-like style.

The backs have a swirling design in different shades of blue.

Tarot Egyptien

Creator(s): G. Regamey, Haugard-Mauge

Date: 1890*, 1985
Country: France
Publisher: Dusserre
Number of Cards: 78
ISBN:  
Type: Etteilla
Reference: Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol.III, p. 587 








Notes:
This Etteilla  type deck was originally published by Delarue of Paris around the turn of the century. The tax stamp on the two of swords was valid from 1890 to 1917. The original title was 78 Tarots Egyptiens Grand Jeu de L'Oracle des Dames. A case for the deck in the British Museum indicates that the designer was G. Regamey and the lithographer was Haugard-Mauge.

The reprint was issued 1985 by Dusserre with a pink and white geometrical back design. It was a reproduction of a deck in the Bibliotheque Nationale De Paris

Le Tarot des Templiers

Creator(s): Willy Vassaux
Date: 1995, 1999
Country: France
Publisher: Dervy
Number of Cards: 78
ISBN: 978-2850-768637 
Type: Marseilles
Reference: Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol.IV, pp. 83,84






Notes:
Willy Vassaux is  a French cartoonist, well known for his comic book histories of the battles of World War II. This deck was created in 1995 and first named  Tarot des Grands Inities du Moyen Age (Tarot of the Great Initiates of the Middle Ages). It was mentioned in Kaplan's Encyclopedia as an unpublished Tarot design. In 1999 it was published by Dervy as Le Tarot des Templiers (Tarot of the Templars).

It was rendered in pen and ink and has Kabbalistic references and other symbols worked into the figures and background. Trumps I through X are associated with their corresponding Sephiroth, indicated on small banners. Other Hebrew words are found on banners as well.

Card titles are in French. La Justice is VIII and La Force is XI.The pips are illustrated with suit emblems and ornate floral designs. Suits are Baton, d'Epee, Denier, and Coupe. The court cards consist of the Valet (Servant), Cavalier (Knight), Reyne (Queen) and Roy (King). The costumes and locations are probably more theatrical fantasy than historical fact. Heraldic crests have been added into many of the designs.

It was packaged as both a single deck (with no LWB) and a book and deck set (which includes a 160-page French only book by Jean-Louis Victor) . Mine is the single deck edition. Parts of the book are translated into English by Marc Filipas and can be found at pasteboardmasquerade.

Lismon Etteilla Tarot

Creator(s):  Z. Lismon
Date: 1890*, 2012
Country: France
Publisher: Blocquel*, HistoricalRetrospective
Number of Cards: 78
ISBN:   
Type: Etteilla
Reference: Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol.II, pp. 404, 405







Notes: 
The Lismon Etteilla is of type Grand Etteilla II and was -according to Dummett- the work of Simon Blocquel, a publisher at Lille, who worked in collaboration with his father-in-law Jean-Baptist Castiaux. The two of them liked using anagrammatic pseudonyms such as Blismon, Z. Lismon, Zlismon, Buqcellos, Milbons and Monblis.  A French biography of Blocquel can be found here.

The first evidence for this deck was in a book called Le Grand Etteilla, ou l'Art de tirer les cartes published 1838 by Blocquel, which served to advertise his new version of  Etteilla's cards. The authors name, Julia Orsini, maybe another pseudonym of Blocquel.

There were at least four editions of the Lismon Etteilla between 1838 and 1917, the oldest one (1838), which was mentioned in Kaplans Encyclopedia, has a misspelling of "Eteilla" on card number one, the following editions have the correct spelling "Etteilla".

Tax stamps for playing cards in France were abolished in 1790 and return in 1890, lasting until 1917. Thus the tax stamp on the Two of Swords dates a deck between 1890 and 1917.

The second edition (e.g. see  here) has a correct spelling of Etteilla, a complete upper left wreath on card #74 but no tax stamp, thus it dates before 1890.

The third edition can be seen on the British Museum page,  it has a tax stamp on the Two of Swords (thus it dates after 1890) and a complete upper left wreath on card #74.

The fourth edition has a tax stamp on the Two of Swords and a missing part in the upper left wreath of card #74, possibly because the printing block has got damaged. The reprint by HistoricalRetrospective was from the fourth edition.

 All Grand Etteilla II editions have on the Ace of Wands  Chute or "Fall" as the upright and the reversed is Naissance or "Birth" (The 1900-20 Grimaud Etteilla ''corrects" this so that Birth/Naissance is the upright and Fall/Chute is reversed).

Grand Etteilla II was engraved on wood and did not diverge greatly from the original Etteilla deck. The titles are printed on both sides of the picture frame. Some images and keywords are different from Etteilla’s original deck. The Coins have become wreaths enclosing a quatrefoil. The lower panels on the numeral cards are new. The cards 1,10,12,15 and 21 have been redesigned.

Francois Chosson Tarot

Creator(s): Francois Chosson
Date: 1736, 2012
Country: France
Publisher: Yves Renauld
Number of Cards: 78
ISBN:   
Type: Marseilles
Reference: Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol.II, pp. 310, 312







Notes:
This deck is a facsimile of the Chosson Tarot in the Historical Museum Blumenstein in Solothurn. It is a limited edition of 3000, mine is number 104.

The original Tarot Chosson is uncertain in dating. On the 2 of Deniers appears as date 1672. A proofed date is April 21, 1736, when Francois Chosson deposited two copies of the sheet of packaging (also reproduced with the present facsimile), one to the trade association of the traders and cardmakers, the other in the Clerk's Office of the Police of Marseilles.

The initials of the engraver on the Chariot and the Two of Cups are "G.S." There are not  many known cardmakers with the initials GS in the right dates, but there is a "Guilhen Sallonetz" mentioned together with his father or brother Jacques Sallonetz in Marseille in 1662. Further in the list, there are others - Guillaume Sellon (1676-1715), Jacques Sellon (1676-1708), along with Jean-François Sellon (1676-1688) Antoine Sellon (1713-1715), and Claude-François Sellon (1730) - all in Marseille.

The names Sallonetz and Sellon are probably two forms of the same name, one in Provençal, and one in French. "Guilhen" is a Provençal form of "Guillaume" . So there seems to be a family business that is attested from 1662-1730. Perhaps Chosson bought it after the final Sellon retired.

Another point about the 2 of Deniers is that the name Chosson has smaller and thicker letters than name François. Also, the name "Chosson" does not curve properly in relation to the curve of the banner, unlike the elegant and properly-fitted "François."

Maybe that the name "François" is the original 1672 name, and that "Chosson" was added later (old name cut out, new name glued in). The old name then must have been "Sellon". Two of the Sellon family have the middle name "François" - Jean-François and Claude-François. Since a tradition among French families is to give the son(s) the middle name of the father,it is possible that "François Sellon" was the founder of the house and his presumed son Guillaume is the engraver (a detailed discussion on the dating of the Chosson Tarot can be found here ).

Tarot de la Cantada II

Creator(s): Collaboration
Date: 2013
Country: France
Publisher: self-published
Number of Cards: 78
ISBN:    
Type: Marseilles
Reference: here




 




Notes:
The Cantada II is a famous Rock Bar in Paris, which often organizes exhibitions around esoterism and magick.

Daisy Deparys & Mickey Maouss as art directors made 21 photographers and a painter create the 22 Majors.

 The painter was "Denis Grrr" , who did The Fool and also designed the Minors  with digital software.

The deck is loosely based on the Marseille pattern.