France

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dazzleguts
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France

Unread post by dazzleguts »

1567 Rouen Playing Cards
2006 Facsimile

Rouen spades diamonds.jpg
Rouen spades diamonds.jpg (411.16 KiB) Viewed 8440 times
This deck is a 2006 facsimile taken from a 1567 set of face cards by Pierre Marechal of Rouen, France. They are made by Rose & Pentagram Design.
Rouen clubs hearts.jpg
Rouen clubs hearts.jpg (397.76 KiB) Viewed 8440 times
The cards of Rouen are significant because in 1628 England banned the importation of playing cards. English printers used the Rouen cards imported prior to the ban as models for their own cruder and more stylized decks. These decks developed into the standard courts still used in many modern French suited decks.
Rouen pips small.jpg
Rouen pips small.jpg (74.78 KiB) Viewed 8440 times
Here is a comparison with a replica 1500s English card from after the ban. This card is from a replica deck made by hand by Simon Wintle in 1987, using the same technologies of the time - woodcut for the line work and stencil for the colour.[/color]
Rouen comparison small.jpg
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Re: France

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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.

Chimeras spades hearts.jpg
Chimeras clubs diamonds.jpg
Chimeras aces.jpg
The jokers show Victor Hugo, author of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Eugene Viollet-le-Duc who spent 1845 - 1863 restoring the Cathedral.
Chimeras jokers.jpg
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]
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Re: France

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Re: France

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Re: France

Unread post 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;
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Re: France

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Re: France

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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.
Grotesque spades s.jpg
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.
Grotesque hearts s.jpg
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.
Grotesque clubs s.jpg
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.
Grotesque diamonds s.jpg
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.
Grotesque box title card wrapper.jpg
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.
Grotesque versions.jpg
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]
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Re: France

Unread post by volantangel »

Very nice ! What does the back look like though, plain ?
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Re: France

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:) 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.
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Re: France

Unread post by volantangel »

Whoops my bad, i did see it the second time around.
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Re: France

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Re: France

Unread post 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.
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Re: France

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Re: France

Unread post 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.
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Re: France

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Re: France

Unread post by dazzleguts »

Thanks J, I am interested. I also saw the New Bond Canasta decks in your thread.
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Re: France

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Re: France

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Re: France

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Re: France

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Re: France

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Re: France

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Re: France

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The hippo deck is absolutely adorable
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Re: France

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Re: France

Unread post 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.
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Re: France

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Re: France

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Re: France

Unread post 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.
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Re: France

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Re: France

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