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France
Posted: Mon Feb 03, 2014 7:08 pm
by dazzleguts
Re: France
Posted: Wed Feb 19, 2014 12:23 am
by dazzleguts
Game of Chimeras
52 playing cards + 2 different jokers
Published by Editions Face & Dos
In this deck are 20 Illustrations in pencil by Yannick Pennanguer - the 12 courts, 4 aces, 2 jokers, the card back and the Notre Dame Cathedral which is background to every pip card.
The jokers show Victor Hugo, author of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Eugene Viollet-le-Duc who spent 1845 - 1863 restoring the Cathedral.
Here is the text from the information card shown in the first picture:
Strange mythological creatures originating in the Orient, the chimera were very present in medieval minds and imagination. One can often find these supernatural beings as sculptures in churches and other religious buildings. Contrary to the more popular gargoyles, which were projecting elements used for draining off rainwater, chimeras had a purely ornemental function.
Those that adorn the towers of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, overlooking the city from 46 meters above the ground, are straight out of the imagination of Viollet-le-Duc, the architect who undertook the restoration of the church beginning in 1845.
Among these hybrid animals, these fantastic birds and fabulous monsters, the most famous chimera is undoubtedly the Strige (Queen of Hearts), mischievous night spirit of Oriental legends. Since its creation, the pensive attitude of the Stryga sculpture has fascinated writers and poets. Even today, she seems to contemplate with detachment the changing world below.[/color]
Re: France
Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2014 7:29 pm
by Jock1971
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Re: France
Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2014 2:23 pm
by Jock1971
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Re: France
Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2014 6:19 pm
by dazzleguts
Hey J
Your Cartes Francaises is called a Belgian-Genoese pattern, but it originated with B.P. Grimaud around 1860 as a pattern that was close to the national one of France, but different enough to evade the tax. In the original national pattern of France the cards all had names and the shield carried by the J of C was oval rather than triangular.
This variation on the French pattern was used in Casinos, had early and lasting success in Genoa, and became very popular in Belgium - being adopted as the national pattern after WWII.
The joker is used by Carta Mundi now, but the MF on the bottom of the box suggests the originator of this joker design, Mesmaekers Freres, may have made this deck - sometime between 1925 when that joker first appeared, and 1968, when Van Genechten, who already had close connections with Mesmaekers took over the company. 2 years later Van Genechten was one of the founding companies of Carta Mundi. It's also possible that the deck was printed by Genechton, or Carta Mundi, but they used a reference to MF to identify the particular look of the cards as coming from that source.
You can read about the Genoese patterns here:
http://i-p-c-s.org/pattern/bgp.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://a_pollett.tripod.com/cards21.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Re: France
Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2014 6:55 pm
by Jock1971
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Re: France
Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2014 2:45 pm
by dazzleguts
Jeu Grotesque circa 1800
This is the most bizarre deck in my collection, and possibly the most bizarre ever made. Definitely one of my favourites. The cards I am showing are from a facsimile deck made by Vito Arienti for Edizioni del Solleone in 1977.
The original pack was made circa 1800. The figures on the cards are caricatures, engraved and coloured by hand. There are 6 different faces on the aces and court cards, with only 2 figures combined on the pip cards.
Since they were intended to play a specific popular game called Binette, there are only 32 cards: ace and 7 through king in each suit.
This facsimile pack is very true to the original. They are long at 2.5" x 3.75", have square corners, no plastic coating or varnish, and have blank backs. Since Vito Arienti made this in 1977 he must have restored the colour by hand somehow rather than by computer manipulation.
This is the box lid and bottom, along with the title card, and the paper band that holds the cards. My deck is #181 out of an edition of 999.
There are often many reproductions of the more popular, and/or rare, antique decks and here are three of this one. Top right in the picture is the facsimile deck I am showing here, to the left is a miniature version made by del Solleone, and bottom right is a 2004 reproduction of the Jeu Grotesque deck from the collection of the Fournier Museum of Playing Cards.
The Fournier Museum deck shows the subdued colours and darkened paper of the actual aged deck, but the corners are rounded and there's a plastic finish to the reproduced cards. The del Solleone facsimile attempts to show the deck in it's original state at the time of it's printing.
[/color]
Re: France
Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2014 2:51 pm
by volantangel
Very nice ! What does the back look like though, plain ?
Re: France
Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2014 3:20 pm
by dazzleguts
The back is blank - I mention it in there somewhere.
Sorry for the sideways orientation, I'm trying to fix that now.
Fixed!
Photobucket doesn't like images that are 1000 or more pixels wide so it turned them. I made them 950 wide instead.
Re: France
Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2014 3:44 pm
by volantangel
Whoops my bad, i did see it the second time around.
Re: France
Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2014 5:43 pm
by Jock1971
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Re: France
Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2014 6:34 pm
by dazzleguts
No, the Fournier Museum has an original Jeu Grotesque from circa 1800. It looks that way after being around for over 200 years and they reproduced it exactly.
The Fournier Museum is a seperate entity from the Fournier card maker and I believe the Museum had their card reproductions all printed in China. They reproduced a large number of the antique decks in their collection in 2004 and I have quite a few. They were selling for fairly low prices back in 2010.
I was guessing that Vitto Arienti's 1977 deck was painstakingly made from an original one, in black and white line work, then hand coloured to restore the look of the deck. Either that or an original in perfect bright condition actually exists and he had access to it to make his facsimile.
Sorry if I wasn't clear enough in the write-up about these being originally from 1800 - it's in the title now.
Re: France
Posted: Thu May 08, 2014 1:09 pm
by Jock1971
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Re: France
Posted: Thu May 08, 2014 3:13 pm
by dazzleguts
I like the Heron joker - he has a very particular character.
Wonder why they did that so much with the court card names over top of the pips. I've seen it before and it always looks like a mistake in printing.
Re: France
Posted: Thu May 08, 2014 3:28 pm
by Jock1971
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Re: France
Posted: Thu May 08, 2014 5:35 pm
by dazzleguts
Thanks J, I am interested. I also saw the New Bond Canasta decks in your thread.
Re: France
Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2014 4:37 pm
by Jock1971
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Re: France
Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2014 4:56 pm
by Jock1971
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Re: France
Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2014 1:33 pm
by Jock1971
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Re: France
Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2014 5:20 am
by Jock1971
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Re: France
Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2014 5:24 am
by Jock1971
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Re: France
Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2014 5:35 am
by Jock1971
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Re: France
Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2014 6:37 am
by volantangel
The hippo deck is absolutely adorable
Re: France
Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2014 3:39 pm
by Jock1971
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Re: France
Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2014 11:38 am
by dazzleguts
This is such a strange and interesting deck. Definitely borrowing from the Russian Black Palekh with the black background and those pip cards. The jokers remind me of monsters/demons from old Japanese illustrations. I've been looking for an affordable one of these for ages, without any luck, and I've never seen the whole deck before. Thank you for showing this Jase.
Re: France
Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2014 12:44 pm
by Jock1971
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Re: France
Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2014 2:10 pm
by Jock1971
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Re: France
Posted: Sat Nov 15, 2014 1:27 am
by dazzleguts
It's probably just me, but these particular cards always make me think of comic book heroes. I think it's in the way he has them standing, with one foot forward and one back, and the sweep of the lines. They could take off flying at any moment, capes fluttering in the wind.
Re: France
Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2014 4:47 pm
by Jock1971
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Re: France
Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2014 4:50 pm
by Jock1971
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