What TdM deck is referred to in...

Long time no see if anyone I know is still around!

Finally getting off my butt and reading some of my books. I'm reading "The Tarot" by Joseph Maxwell. Excellent eye opening read by the way. However the deck he's describing is not one I own! It doesn't match Noblet, Dodal, Viellivue(sp?), Jordowsky, the Scaraboro classics, the italian classics, or the Visconti's. (I know bad spelling forgive me.)
I don't own a Convers so maybe that's it. No idea!

Anyways, anyone here read his work and know what deck he's describing?

Yes it's the Conver and strangely I found only one edition matching exactly the colors and details as described by Maxwell : the édition du bicentennaire Camoin.
As the book was published prior to 1960 and even the Paul Marteau's restoration he couldn't know it of course. I suppose he used a Camoin deck published circa 1900-1920.

Ah thanks! That was driving me crazy I do own a convers deck (I forgot I had it lol) but not that one. I fond it funny that Maxwell insists that that deck is the only correct one

Conver was certainly the only TdM to be published during the XIX century therefore his choice. He dismisses the tarot italien ou d'Arnoult published by Grimaud before the Marteau and which was in fact a tarot de Besançon. Despite his name he was french and oddly he seems to ignore that the original Conver was in the Bibliothèque Nationale with different coloring than the "identical to Camoin 1960" he describes.

Hello Hooked on TdM and Philippe, I do not know what is the deck using Joseph Maxwell to illustrate his book, if you can show us a picture of some illustrations perhaps we can know that deck is.

Conver TdM was not the only one that was printed during the XIX century
indeed several decks were created within this century

Andre Arnoux (Marseille, after 1800)
Jean Jerger (Besancon, after 1808)
Unknown (maybe David I Hurter, Schaffhausen, around 1810)
Joseph Henri Rochias (Neuchatel, 1816)
Bernardin Suzanne (Marseille, 1st half of 19th c.)
Renault (Besancon, 1830)
Francois Gassmann (Geneva, around 1840)
Jean Isaac Logoz (Geneva, around 1840)
Johannes I Muller (Diessenhofen/Thurgau, around 1840)
Johannes II Muller (Schaffhausen, around 1880)

between a few and several other unknown

Well I think the mystery is solved :
Maxwell uses a 1880 Camoin's Conver that you can see here : http://www.camoin.com/tarot/-Tarot-Marseille-Conver-1880-.html or here : http://blog.goo.ne.jp/valet_de_coupe/e/f360def7a58ac97ed9b7abca3e378efa?fm=entry_awc. This deck has become with few changes the Camoin édition du bicentennaire 1960 and one more time slightly altered the Thunder Bay (very cheap). There is a thread concerning this deck here : http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=197320
I've made 2 scans :
https://www.sendspace.com/file/17b2ru
https://www.sendspace.com/file/spzsf8
You can easily see for yourself that the bigger cards match Maxwell's very detailed explanations (it's the Thunder Bay). The smaller cards are the original Conver.

eltarot78 said:

if you can show us a picture of some illustrations perhaps we can know that deck is.

Click to expand...

The book is unillustrated, hence the question starting the thread.

Thank you for the many numerous answers! I'm not sure its worth buying yet another version just now. Least I know what one it is so I wont be driven as crazy lol