This new restoration of
the woodblock designs by Nicolas Conver has been done by the House of Camoin,
direct descendants of Conver's tradition and heirs to the original designs.
I had the pleasure of meeting Philippe Camoin personally in Chicago this
summer at the World Tarot Congress. I took one look at his deck and
I was compelled to purchase it.
The artwork in the deck
has been completely restored to the original concepts but using computer
and modern printing technology for an image fidelity that is second to
none. Clear, precise areas of color and symbolism, and indeed, there
are more colors used here than in any other Marseilles deck I've seen.
The white backgrounds are still here, in fact none of the original feel
is lost, it's just enhanced and cleaned up. This deck represents
the culmination of years of dedicated work by Camoin with Alexandre Jodorovsky.
Classic Marseille symbolism is used in the deck, but somehow they have more esoteric quality than I expected. There are no scenes in the numbered cards. The Roman Numerals used are used in the old way, instead of the subtractive method, throughout the entire deck. Order is also consistent with the Marseilles norm. Justice is 8 and Strength 11.
The cards are standard
sized and seem to shuffle easily. The back design is a reversible
pattern of little purple arrow thingies on white. The little white
booklet is quite good and actually goes into some explanation of the cards'
symbolism as well as meaning. It is printed in six languages; French,
Spanish, English, German, Portugese and Italian. Titles on the courts
and Majors are in French. Suits are Wands, Coins, Swords and Cups,
and the King, Queen, Knight and Page are the typical courts.
This is my other favorite
of the Marseilles style decks, due to the recoloring and the clean capture
of the images. It just looks really smashing. I don't know
where to recommend purchasing the deck except directly through the House
of Camoin's website. It's definitely worth the effort to get
one.
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Review Copyright 1999
by Gina M. Pace
Tarot of Marseilles by
Jodorowsky and Camoin
published by Camoin,
Marseille, France