J. Gaudais 1860

Rasa

I was excited to finally receive this deck in the mail today, after an unusually long time in transit!

You can see some of the images here:
http://translate.google.com/transla...earch?q=gaudais+tarot&start=10&hl=en&lr=&sa=N

I could only find it mentioned in one thread in this forum, but there wasn't a lot of discussion about it.

I am wondering if anyone has this deck... I had never heard of it until I saw it on ebay, but it's quite lovely!

The cards are playing-card-sized, and pretty thin, but seem like they'll hold up well anyways.

I'm not too sure about the publisher.... there's no publisher's name, copyright date, ISBN# or anything on the box. It says, "made in Spain", but the two cards describing the deck are in French. One says it was made by Heraclio Fournier, but it seems odd to me that they didn't put their name on the outside of the box anywhere, and the box and cards seem kind of shoddy quality (the other Fournier decks and boxes that I have seem thick in comparison). I wonder if I have an unliscensed knockoff or something?

Anyways, I like the deck.... The courts are all very interesting and incredibly expressive, and the double-ended majors seem divided in half in a more aesthetically pleasing way than in some of these type of decks, where they just cut the card in half and flip it, and it really looks like it should be a full image...

I also particularly like how there are different kinds of plants shown in the floral embellishments on the pips... I can clearly see ivy, oak leaves, clover, and tulips, to name a few.
There are a lot of other interesting bits, too...

-there are stars on the 6 of cups
-there is a little crescent moon on the 7 of coins
-the king of coins holds a scroll
-the ace of swords comes out of a cloud, but the ace of wands the hand issues from thin air, floating.
-the moon is a crescent, and has the image of a bearded man
-the knight of coins wears a pentacle around his neck
-the magician has symbols of the 4 French playing-card suits on his shirt
-Justice has stone tablets marked 'LOI' and 'CODE' behind her

I am intrigued by the Ace of wands, and I wanted to ask about it, because it is full of red and yellow apples! How odd!
Are there any other older decks that have apples in this card?
I included a picture below.. but it was taken by my webcam since I don't have a scanner, so I apologize for the poor quality.
 

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Bernice

Hi Rasa,

I have this deck. I got it second-hand about 2yrs ago.
I like it, and was also intrigued by the 'fruitfull' ace, I think it's lovely.

My only disapointment is that the image-lines and a few other areas are rather faintly drawn as if faded, or perhaps it's only my deck that's like this?

My box has the publisher as Fournier, with the address; 20 Rue de la Bangue - PARIS.

The Hanged Man tickles me with just his legs.....

Bee :)
 

Cerulean

I know, its charming, haven't heard or seen anything

else other than a thread or two where some people, including myself, say they love the fun and different imagery.

Charming deck.

Cerulean
 

roppo

I have the deck too, and it was a present from a lady who lived in Europe. It came with a sort of Weekly Encyclopaedia of Playing Cards: the deck seems to be a gift for that issue. The attached is the scan of the magazine.
 

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Le Fanu

I've seen this for sale a couple of times. I really thought it was more of a tarock deck judging by the box, but now I realise what a beautiful deck it is!
 

gregory

It's Fournier all right. And ther seller who sold it to me said it was from Spain - that is strange.

I think the quality is just - from the past, like. I love the thing. I got it dirt cheap second hand.
 

Bernice

gregory said:
It's Fournier all right. And ther seller who sold it to me said it was from Spain - that is strange.

I think the quality is just - from the past, like. I love the thing. I got it dirt cheap second hand.
Yes, my box says Made in Spain, and publisher is Fournier.

There's a thread here where someone has posted to say that Fournier was French but moved his business to Spain - I think it was Kwaw (could be wrong - my aplogies to the rightful poster).


Bee :)
 

Aegishjalmur

I'm contemplating getting this one or the Robledo edition. Does anyone have anymore pictures of this deck? Very little info on the deck online.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

kwaw

Although Gaudais was french, this double-sided TdB style deck seems to have an Italian influence, the numbering of the fool as zero for example, and the butterfly -- it is quite like the double-sided Piemontese, excepting for the replacement of the Papesse/Pope with Juno and Jupiter

The British Museum has a couple of earlier cartomancy decks produced by Gaudais, from the 1820's and 30's:

http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/search.aspx?people=159685&peoA=159685-2-70