Tarot Nouveau by Grimaud

Here just for fun and as kind of following thread to the "Tarot Grimaud - guy with the lute on cover" thread
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=112054
here are some scans of the Tarot Nouveau printed by Grimaud during the 20th century.

Grimaud Nouveau 01
The first one is the original first published in 1900.
It is designed inspired from the german Tarot deck printed by Wüst that was popular at this time (too popular for the authorities and that is why Grimaud was asked to create a "french" deck!)
The pictures are on a creamy background and the lamination is very smooth like satin and these are very nice cards to hold in the hands

The pictures have almost not changed since then, beside of adding numbers to the pips in order to make it easier for the card player to see what card they have. One should not forget that Tarot was first of all and still is a card game (OK sorry for all people who do not believe this )

Grimaud Nouveau 02
The second edition one has already the additional numbers but still the creamy background and the smooth satin lamination.

Grimaud Nouveau 03
The third one is newer and is the De Luxe edition that came in a two pieces box (one piece is grey the other is red).
This is already a newer cardstock, with a more plastic lamination.
It has a B.P. Grimaud copyright.
The numbers and letters for the pips have changed and are a little bit bigger but still quite thin.

Grimaud Nouveau 04
The fourth one is a copy with a very nice illustrated cardback.
The numbers and letters are much bigger than before.
I do not have a newer deck but I believe the newest deck that you can buy today should look almost like this one.

Wuest
This is the deck that Grimaud used as "inspiration".
This deck appeared 1865.
This copy is newer but also quite old and with an old cardstock.
(This particular deck has only 54 cards for a particular variation of the game of Tarock)

The following post (due to the 5 scans limit per post) will show further variations of the Tarot nouveau.

In 1946 the company La Ducale, directed by Jean Marie Simon (JMS) begin to be a concurrent to Grimaud and in 1962, JMS even buy Grimaud!
If someone is interested in more history about Grimaud you can find on the site of "France Cartes" more informations in french:
http://www.france-cartes.fr/
go to menu Le groupe/ Histoire et Métiers/ Historique

Here are scans of three nice copy of the decks printed by JMS with interesting variations.
On Trump number one there is a picture of Pierrot.
Some collectors identify these variations with the position of Pierrot on this picture.
Here are 3 variations:

JMS Pierrot debout
Standing Pierrot, the most common version

JMS Pierrot assis
Sitting Pierrot

JMS Pierrot battu
Beated Pierrot



Other scenes are also slightly different.

To finish, here are scans from older Tarot or Tarock decks that were also used to play rather than for divination.
It shows some of the ways the pictures took before they finally find the actual form with scenes in the country or in the city they still have today.

Chinois
(also named Allemand à deux Têtes) that is older and was first published by Lefer during the 19th century.
This one is also printed by Grimaud.

Microscopique
This is the beautiful Tarot Microscopique printed by the german cardmaker Dondorf in 1906

Piatnik 45
Piatnik 162
They both belong both to the categorie "Industrie und Glück" Tarock and have been printed by Piatnik and Söhne in Wien.
Such decks are still in print today for the game of Tarock.

Best regards

Wonderful stuff coredil....our resident Grimaud expert!

Thanks very much for the links and information which I am reading with enthusiasm!

Moonbow* said:

Wonderful stuff coredil....our resident Grimaud expert!

Thanks very much for the links and information which I am reading with enthusiasm!

Click to expand...

I am honoured [blushing smiley]

I really like the Chinois and the Piatnik 162...
Thanks for bringing these to our attention. Very nice.

That "Chinois", which I found in a 2nd hand bookshop here (the Grimaud edition "Tarot Allemand á la deux têtes", 1986) is spectacular. I almost didn´t buy it but was on one of those "must take something home!" days. LOL. It is absolutely exquisite. Stunning colours and really flamboyant. I use it as regular reading deck (without the Trumps). A dream of a deck.

I also have the Piatnik 45 which I bought when I was 15 thinking it was the "Tarot" which I was familiar with, but then didn´t recognise any of the trumps! Kept it and glad I did.

I also recently bought a stunning "Russchische Tiertarocken" (Piatnik) deck which has become a favourite. I love reading with just the pips of these tarock decks as they have 4 court cards, unlike standard playing cards.

Thanks for all that Coredil!

Wuest deck at wikicommons

My restoration of the Wuest Tarock is available at Wikicommons
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Wuest_Tarock
These are small size repros I've made available mainly for computer game programers.

The Wuest came in both 78 card versions and in 54 card versions according to the information I've seen on French ebay auctions.
Since these were German cards I presume the former was for Grosstarock and the latter for Cego.

I've also seen a version of the Grimaud Nouveau at the website of the BnF (French National Library) which was more similar to the Wuest than later Grimaud version.

Grimaud

Here are the images from the BnF

http://images.bnf.fr/jsp/index.jsp?...eCliches.jsp&contexte=resultatRechercheSimple

This indicates that at one time Grimaud published a version with the trump numbers in the center, like the Wuest, instead of later versions where they appeared on the corners.

I really like the Microscopique. Fell in love with those images, I wish this deck were available - I get it pronto!

Thank you Coredil

Bee

EDIT: Just found a deck for sale: 380 euros.............(!!!!) Can't possible afford it!

http://uk.babelfish.yahoo.com/trans.../html/tarot__4.html&lp=de_en&.intl=uk&fr=moz2