Le Petit Cartomancien(c) Grimaud, 1968
I bought these on eBay. I thought that it would be nice to have an older, used deck like this. I won the auction with a bid of $7.00. With shipping, the total was $10.00. I was pleased! I got the deck and found out that the deck was unused. Not what I expected. I expected a deck that had been used since 1968. I hoped it would be all creased and broken in. Not so. Cards were stiff and shiny. The LWB slightly yellowed with age - and bound with string. Not complaining, mind you. As a collector, I should have left them pristine. But I decided to give them a whirl.
The card stock is similar to cardboard, so I don't think they will ever be creased and supple. They are quite small and easy to handle, though. The corners are not rounded at all and it makes handling them a bit, well, sharp. The backs are glossy and the fronts are matte. Nicely done, I must say. The artwork is by JJ Grandville, so that is a serious plus I would say. An amazing artist who can portray depth of expression. The backs are fun to stare at....The style of the deck is Petit Etteilla, but simplified in a way. There is only upright and reverse meanings on the cards instead of all directions and whether it is next to Etteilla (1) or not, etc. Complicated system and I am still working through Etteilla, ou La Seule Manier de tirer les cartes, Revue, corrigée et augmentée par l'auteur; sur son premier manuscrit, written by Alliette in 1772.
Because these are not technically "Lenormand," they slid through my moratorium on Lenormand decks. I am waiting until I can get some additional information before I dive back into the world of Lenormand. Of the European cartomancy systems, so far I am familiar with Lenormand, Petit Etteilla, and Biedermeier. Of the three, I much prefer Biedermeier. I do think that these are much easier to use than the Petit Etteilla and use imagery such as found on Lenormand style decks. But after a few days of utter frustration, I found that one cannot assume Lenormand interpretations. Very different, and also very specific. Rather than have a "Fishes" card to possibly represent money, there are several cards dealing specifically with money, or "l'argent." Towards the end of the week, I was feeling more comfortable with the cards, but still felt I was missing something. I have used tarot for over 20 years and I think because I do not use tarot for predictive or other highly specific queries, I have find it difficult to work with a system that is made for predictive and highly specific queries.
As a reading deck, after I worked out some kinks, I found it gave quite detailed answers. My limit for daily spreads is 3-cards, but I feel that these cards would do better with additional cards - 9 at least. This is in order to get a broader view of the situation at hand. I am still not sure I should have used this 44 year old pristine deck, but then again, it was bought with the express intention of being used.
Rating: Collectible
