Epinal Tarot

Lee

On a scan of the World card, it looks like the lion has been replaced by... two sheep?!? I love it! :D

-- Lee
 

shaveling

I have a question about one of the Epinal oddities. In the TdM, all the Queens are seated on thrones. Same thing in the RWS. This makes sense to me. A throne is a symbol of royal rank, and even in the case of ordinary chairs, royal folk get to sit while the rest of us have to stand.

In the 1JJ Swiss, all the Queens are standing. I can work with that. Maybe it shows deference to her higher ranking husband. Maybe it indicates she had to work harder to get where she is, or has to work harder to get what she wants. Or maybe she's just making a dramatic entrance or exit.

But in the Epinal, the Queens of Swords and Cups are standing, without any background art; the Queen of Sticks is enthroned; and the Queen of Coins is standing, with her throne clearly shown behind her. This is more variety than I want. I usually just ignore the stance of the queens when I use this deck. If it speaks to me in a direct and loud way, I'll consider it in a reading. But otherwise I focus on other elements in the Queens.

Does anybody else have opinions, experience, thoughts about this?
 

Moonbow

This thread has really moved on and the more I hear, the more I think I should get this deck.

What you say about the differences in the Swords facinates me too shaveling. Also on the Two of Cups, the 'fish' look more like eagles. La Force clearly shows a foot, and what IS that animal clinging onto the Fool?

Yep I think I 'need' this deck. :)
 

Simone

*popping in to "borrow" this thread for a second.

I have the deck, but as unfortunately, I am still having my eternal problems reading with Marseille decks, I am maybe looking for a new owner for it, who is interested in giving it a new caring home.

Interested people can PM me so we don't derail this thread completely. Trade or other arrangements can be worked out via PM...

*handing thread back to it's previous course....
 

mythos

Lee said:
On a scan of the World card, it looks like the lion has been replaced by... two sheep?!? I love it! :D

-- Lee
Mine's the J. M. Simon France-Cartes 1979 version. In addition to the two sheep, the angel appears to have an extra figure to his/her left, his back to the card front. This may merely be an artifact of poor printing, but certainly he appears to be there, though why he is wearing a white wharfies singlet, and why the eagle in the right top corner appears to be playing with a red soccor ball, I have no idea.

Moreover, I swear that the Lady La Force is wearing a pair of thongs (flip-flops). The magician's table shows only two legs. The more I look at these cards, the more oddities I find.

For example, on the Ace of Sticks/Batons (un-named, as are all the Aces), in addition to it's branches with oak leaves and acorns, also has a bare branch which has a bunch of grapes attached to it, by what looks like a chain.

The four of coins has an oval figure (like an amulet) in the centre in which a semi-naked child stands. He has a red loin cloth, one foot on what appears to be a rock, and is bending a snake in his hands, which is, presumably, and incomplete ouroboros.

I don't know ... maybe these are not oddities - I am not all that familiar with this deck, nor with my other older decks. It does look mass-produced and of poor quality, but this is one of the things that makes it so attractive to me.

mythos:)
 

Moonbow

Oh Simone... too late! I've ordered it now. I would much rather have had yours too.
 

Gemyndig

I know I'm resurrecting quite an old thread here, but in my quest to find decks with masculine looking moons, I found this rather quirky and charming historical deck (well, both sun and moon look a bit mannish, but the moon is definitely butch-er IMO!). I like it a lot and find the shade of blue present on a lot of these cards delicious to my eye! I'm hoping to use this mainly as a reading deck because I find non-scenic pips easier to read with (IMO makes the majors stand out more.) I spent all day practically yesterday searching for pictures of it and managed to find a site which shows most of the cards -
http://crowhavenstudio.com/frenchepinaltarot.html


This deck makes me think of something a great aunt would have stuffed in her drawer having bought it on a trip to France many moons ago - to me it's a deck that would have some kind of story attached to it. It also has that "ye olde Fortune Teller" feel to it, putting me in mind of old fashioned fair-ground psychics, silver-crossed palms and tall dark strangers LOL! I think one of the greatest cards in the deck is the Devil - he/she looks somewhat comical, like someone trying to look terrifying but showing their frilly knickers LOL!!! (Did the person who designed this deliberately make this a deck full of such little amusements I wonder??)
 

Bernice

Thank you for posting that link Gemyndig. There's a zip download for the images too.

The two Cups = yes, definately bird-heads. Eagles/birds of prey.

Bee:)
 

Le Fanu

Great deck this, I love it.

And one card which those scans (great as they are) doesn't show, is the "Significator" card. I love decks with Significator cards. This deck has one.

Hugely atmospheric deck, the Epinal, and it feels like the old school of tarot card production; great cardstock, firm and resilient, and slightly "rough" reproductions. I really, really should use it more. Every time I get it out, I tell myself I must use it more...
 

Moonbow

I nearly traded this deck recently because its one which I rarely look at, so I'm so glad to see this thread resurrected. It means I get to look at the comic book Marseilles deck again. :)

Look at the deck long enough and there are so many oddities that can send you off on a goosechase. Today I noticed Justice has a book, mirror and snake next to her on the floor, reminiscent of Prudence. So here finally is the missing Prudence!

Mistress Strength is about to extract teeth from the lion, and some faces don't fit bodies, like the Star.

Thanks for the links to the Majors Gemyndig, and welcome to Aeclectic.