Decks
Tarot de Besançon (Lequart, 1890) 0
A Tarot de Besançon printed by Lequart in Paris in 1890, an adapted reissue of the tarot Arnoult published in 1748 — the Two of Coins still reads "Arnoult 1748". The Besançon pattern replaces the Popess and the Pope with Juno and Jupiter at II and V, and keeps the Marseille order, where Justice is VIII and Strength is XI — the reverse of Rider-Waite-Smith. Scans from the Bibliothèque nationale de France via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
Tarot de Marseille (Dodal, Lyon, c. 1701) 0
A Tarot de Marseille cut by Jean Dodal in Lyon between 1701 and 1715, and one of the oldest complete Marseille packs to survive. It was printed for export — several cards carry the legend F·P·LE·TRENGE, faict pour l'estranger — and keeps the Popess at II and the Pope at V, with the Marseille order in which Justice is VIII and Strength is XI, the reverse of Rider-Waite-Smith. Scans from the Bibliothèque nationale de France via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
Tarot de Marseille (Camoin after Conver, Marseille, c. 1890) 0
A Tarot de Marseille printed by A. Camoin in Marseille between 1890 and 1900 from the pattern Nicolas Conver cut in Marseille in 1760 — the Two of Coins still carries his 1760 imprint. Conver's own printing is the pattern most modern Marseille decks descend from, but no complete set of it has been digitised; this later pull from the same model is the closest complete one that is freely available. It keeps the Marseille order, where Justice is VIII and Strength is XI, the reverse of Rider-Waite-Smith. Scans from the Bibliothèque nationale de France via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
Tarot Nouveau (Grimaud, Paris, c. 1898) 0
A playing deck rather than a divinatory one. Twenty-one numbered trumps and the Excuse, with four French suits — hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades — of fourteen cards each. The trumps carry no titles and no occult subjects at all: they are double-headed genre scenes of nineteenth-century life, printed for the game of French tarot, which is still played with this pattern today. Printed by B.-P. Grimaud in Paris in 1898 or 1899. Scans from the Bibliothèque nationale de France via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
Oswald Wirth (1889) 0
Twenty-two trumps and nothing else — this deck has no minor arcana at all. Oswald Wirth drew it in 1889 for Stanislas de Guaita, and it is the first tarot made deliberately as an occult instrument rather than as a game. Beside each card's number stands a Hebrew letter, the attribution the whole later esoteric tradition rests on. Wirth renames two: his Tower is the Fire of Heaven and his Star is the Stars. Scans from the Bibliothèque nationale de France via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
Tarot hiéroglyphique égyptien (Dulora de la Haye, Paris, 1897) 0
Twenty-two trumps and nothing else, printed in Paris in 1897 by Madame Dulora de la Haye with a twelve-page booklet and a card étui. The cards are large — 161 mm — and each carries its readings printed above and below the picture, so the deck is its own manual. Her names are her own: the Milky Way for the Star, the Will for Judgement, a Shield and a Vase where the Hermit and the Chariot usually stand, and four cards at the head of the sequence that stand for the querent. The order is fixed by the letter of her hieroglyphic alphabet in the cartouche at each card's right edge. Scans from the Bibliothèque nationale de France via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
Grand Etteilla (Grimaud, Paris, c. 1890) 0
The first tarot designed purely for divination, and still the only one where the card is its own interpretation: the upright reading is printed across its head and the reversed reading, upside down, across its foot. All seventy-eight cards are numbered in one run from 1 to 78, and the trumps are not the Marseille subjects at all but Chaos, Light, the Plants, the Sky and the other stages of creation. The deck descends from "Etteilla" — Jean-Baptiste Alliette, a seed merchant who reversed his name in the 1780s and invented this order. Printed by B.-P. Grimaud in Paris between 1875 and 1899. Scans from the Bibliothèque nationale de France via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
Piquet au portrait officiel (Paris, 1816) 0
A thirty-two card piquet pack in the French official portrait, engraved on metal and stencil-coloured in Paris in 1816. The twos through sixes are gone from every suit, which is what piquet — and most nineteenth-century French cartomancy — was played with. The courts are single-headed and each carries its traditional name printed beside it: David, Pallas and Hogier for spades, and so on through all four suits. The backs are plain, as French cards of this date were. Scans from the Bibliothèque nationale de France via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
Piquet au portrait de Paris (Lebeuf, c. 1805) 0
A thirty-two card piquet pack printed by Lebeuf in Paris between 1800 and 1813 — his name is on the Queen of Spades and the King of Hearts. Unlike the official portrait beside it, this one is double-headed, so the courts are mirrored and carry no names, and it has a printed blue star-pattern back. The same thirty-two cards: no twos through sixes in any suit. Scans from the Bibliothèque nationale de France via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.