The Postman was Kind Today

[BradGad]

I hope to eventually put together all the TdM restorations Yves Reynaud has put out... essentially a Tarot de Marseilles reference library.

 

 

Made some progress today. The Claude Burdel 1751, Laurent 1735, and Heri 1730 arrived.

 

 

 

The Burdel is pretty much a by-the-book Type II. One nice thing: it comes wrapped in a facsimile of the wrapping Burdel used back in the 1700s.

 

When I opened the package today, I couldn't remember why I moved this one toward to front of the queue (even though it wasn't that long since I placed my order: shipping from Tarot de Marseilles Heritage from France to North America is amazingly prompt). Then I started going through it and I remembered: the faces. The faces are really interesting: very individualistic, and (on the whole), what I would call "good natured," as opposed to the Conver 1760 (my gold standard), where the faces tend to be very neutral, or the Payen, where everyone is downright grumpy (not blaming them; I'm sure life was hard back then). The reference card that comes with the deck mentions that deck incorporates "typical additions of the Swiss productions of this period." I'm looking forward to ferreting those out. The Conver remains my go-to, but I can easily see this becoming a favorite.

 

 

 

The Burdel has the period wrapping paper. There's a neat twist to how YR presents the Laurent as well. Laurent made cards in the traditional TdM pattern until his early death at age 34. His widow remarried, to another card maker (Philippe Joseph Housset), who continued to use Laurent's blocks. As some point before his death in 1770, he "reissued" the deck as a Besançon, where The Popess and The Pope are replaced with Juno and Juniper. This issue from Tarot de Marseille Heritage includes both versions of cards II and V. 

 

 

 

The Heri is a Type I (front-facing Moon, left-facing Cupid in The Lover, etc.). I don't think I realized I was ordering a pocket-size version, but this may work out well. My work surface here in The Cosmic Command Post is pretty small: this will be good for doing large spreads. (Except it's really not pocket-size: way too thick.)  I quite like the pips, especially the cups. There's a good deal of casual irregularities in the application of color that makes the wands and swords feel lees geometric. (In this respect, though, the Gassman 1840 clearly gets top honors.) (Dang that pic is blurry.)

 

I have five of Reynaud's decks so far. Not a lot. I am definitely going down this road, though. When I have a few more, and have spent more time with each, I will start posting some detailed deck-specific reviews, for any others who might want to move into this cozy and rewarding niche of tarot, historical reproductions of the Tarot de Marseilles.

 

Edited February 11, 2023 by BradGad

[gregory]

You do realise you had better set up your mortgage now... I was doing that but had to stop...