Iean Noblet hand-painted Trumps

Description

Noblet Trumps / TSR010 / hand painted

The cards are constructed from two printed sheets of 160gr verger paper, glued together with handmade glue from a traditional recipe. The sheets are then pressed and dried before being painted and cut by hand.

Number of Cards: 22 + 2 extra cards (2 of Cups & 2 of coins) 
Card size: 9.2 x 5.7cm

Packaging: Handmade artisanal cardboard protection ring, and hand-painted envelope

Ring Size: 10 x 2 x 6.5cm
Each deck is dated (MMXXII) and signed

Restoration of the Iean Noblet Tarot Trumps

To redraw the tarot of Iean Noblet, I referred to the only copy of this well-loved tarot, preserved in the National Library of France (Paris).

My approach to tarot restoration is always to preserve as faithfully as possible the character of the original woodcuts. In my redrawing, I made the finest details clearly visible.

Particularities of the Iean Noblet Tarot 

The Noblet is a Type I tarot, and one of the earliest from the Marseille tradition. It was manufactured around 1660 by the Parisian card maker Jean Noblet.

The deck is incomplete: five pip cards are missing (from 6 to 10 of Swords).

Despite this tarot’s smaller than usual size, the obvious finesse of the engravings and the attention to detail are testament to the great mastery of the artist. This little tarot is by no means a simplified or downgraded version of its contemporaries. My main personal goal, during the restoration process, was to shed light on those subtlties partly obscured by the very dark and opaque blues and greens used to paint the historical deck.

The stick of the LE FOV is ended by the fool’s marotte and his genitals are exposed.

The raised hand of LEBATELEUR was broken on the mold (only 2 fingers and the beginning of his wand are visible on the printed card). On the table, three dices, very finely carved, are showing their numeral values.

Trump card XIII is named LAMORT, and has hair.

On LE SOLEIL, the figure on the left hand side is fully clothed.

Iean Noblet, card maker in Paris.

Iean Noblet was a Parisian card maker active during the mid-XVIIth century. The following texts are engraved on two pip cards: -I-NOBLET-AVFAV / BOVR-St-GERMAIN- (on the 2 of Cups), and IEAN NOBLET-DMt-AV-FAVBOVR-St-GERMAIN (on the 2 of coins). This translates as: Jean Noblet, established (dmt) at Faubourg (avfav) Saint-Germain, in Paris. The TSR Noblet Trumps deck includes these two extra cards.

The initials I.N. appear on the Chariot trump card, suggesting that in addition to his role as card maker, Iean Noblet may have signed this deck as an engraver.