Tarot de Marseille Convos

Is anybody familiar with this Swiss-made deck? I saw it listed as a special order deck from Tarot Garden.

I wonder if this deck has any historical significance. I did not find it listed in Kaplan Volume 1.

If you have this deck, please describe the quality of the cards, and your impression of the deck.

Mercy Bowcups.

Ophiel:

It's a modern version of the old Marseilles decks. From what I saw of it, it seems to pretty closely follow the old Grimaud Marseilles pack of a few years back. The figures are a little rounder than what I've seen on other Marseilles decks, and the colors are quite bright. Also, even though the cards' faces follow the ancient pattern, the backs are very modern.

One of the sites that sells this deck says this:

Édité par AGMüller en 1999, cette édition est basée sur des vieilles gravures sur bois dont la forme et la coloration ont été travaillées selon le symbolisme d'origine, avec des formes simples et prononcées ainsi que des couleurs fraîches et brillantes. Jeu et notice explicative en français. Cartes 70 x 120 mm. Prix: 17,00 euro / 685 FB / 111 FF

17 Euros isn't a bad price, but personally I'd rather have Camoin's reconstituted Conver deck, for about the same dinero.

Thanks Catboxer

Thanks for the information. I am rather fond of the Marseilles-style decks and if this was an actual historical deck, I would have ordered it. I already have the Camoin deck.

I think I'll pass on this deck then.

OM

In my opinion, the Convos is one of the poorer renditions of the Marseilles.

I would suggest getting the Camoin, Hadar (two excellent modern renditions) and definitely the Conver - available from Héron, Camoin and Lo Scarabeo publishing houses.

Thanks JMD.

The "Marseilles" decks I now have are:

- Nicolas Conver
- Claude Burdel
- Camoin
- Carta Mundi deck

Do you know if there is U.S. distribution on the Hadar deck? I ordered the Camoin deck and it took WEEKS to get here and we never did figure out what the delay was.

Ophiel:

The Hadar deck is amazingly difficult to get one's hands on. But there's a book-store in Geneva which seems to have some mysterious place where they get hold of them in no time. Perhaps they have contacts with the Tarot Elves.

I bought copies for jmd and for Kaz and sent them, so if you need my help, let me know. But I must warn you that priority postage from Switzerland to the States is very expensive, which will add to the cost of the deck somewhat.

It is a truly beautiful deck. I did a reading with it for someone the other day, and it was like the deck was singing to me.

After I received the Hadar from Diana and wrote a brief review (below the Camoin review), I also contacted Jeannette of Tarot Garden as I thought this was one of those better versions of the Marseilles and well worth getting. She confirmed that it was difficult to get.

Ophiel, is your version of the Burdel from LoScarabeo (with the unfortunate added zero on the Fool and the titles in four languages), or another?

JMD...

Yes, JMD, that is the one! I understand, and will go bury it in the backyard immediately, under the maple tree.

Diana,

If there is any chance you can get me a copy of the Hadar deck I'd really appreciate it. No hurry, but when you have the time please let me know the cost (and for postage to Prague).

By the way, it is relatively easy to get old Czech 32-card Taroky decks here. Usually from 1940 onwards (designs didn't change much but you can more or less date them by the tax stamps). If in return I can source anything like that for you, just let me know.

Thanks!

Karen