And without likelihood we can say that the deck was issued in 1981. Apart from the Fournier catalog, it would be possible to specify this by checking the collector's journals that review the new publications, such as Playing Card World, or in this case As de Trèfle.

Hi people,

As usual, i buy stuff which i have no idea what they are or what they are worth. So i need some expertise help again.

If any of you can help, do let me know on the history of this deck and if they are worth anything?

The deck "Première Guerre Mondiale" by Editions Dusserre was issued in 1981 (Fournier catalogue FRA 561). It might be worth something like $10 or 20 depending on the condition.

Another personal favorite.. Beautiful French Historic deck with non-standard courts and wonderfully decorated pips c1860-65 by Melle Hautot, Paris ( I have seen this attributed to another maker in the past) if anybody can set the record straight, your input is more than welcome.

Here is the exact description with quotes:
Mlle (Mademoiselle = Miss) Hautot, Paris; Imp. (Imprimerie = Printery) Wiesener & Cie, 12, rue Delaborde, Paris. Cartes Historiques (Historical Cards). Design: Mme (Madame = Mrs) Paris (Esther Paris-Persennet ?) 32, complete. Chromolith., 99x63 mm, square corners, no index mark. Backs: Plain pink. 1863.
Lit.: Merlin p. 116; Cary coll. 348; Hoffmann [1972] p. 35 & ill. 54b; Hoffmann/Dietrich [Geschichte] p. 31 & ill. 16.
Luxurious and elegant cards, enhanced with much gold, displaying figures in historical costumes. They are named after the Portrait Officiel. The suit-signs have been modified: spades are spearheads, the color of the clubs is gilt, hearts and diamonds have been reduced to their golden frame lines. These 3 suit-signs are adorned with flowers, birds and fruits respectively (as to clubs then on gilt background), also on the pips, in again and again changing arrangements. The box shows Jacquemin Gringonneur, it also mentions that the deck is „B.S.G.D.G.“ (breveté sans garantie du gouvernement = patented without guarantee of the government). Such information, combined with the ones supplied by Merlin and Depaulis in „Cartiers Parisiens“ p. 28, allows us to identify the pack at long last. The booklet carries the name of its printer Wiesener. It also gives the interesting list of the „DÉPOTS A PARIS“, i.e. the stores where the cards were available:
Maurin, rue des Fossés-Saint-Victor, 24.
Grimaud (here with “coins arrondis“, i.e. rounded corners, a process newly patented by Grimaud), rue de Bondy, 70.
Avril et Cie, rue de la Banque, 20.
Susse Frères, place de la Bourse, 31.
Alph. Giroux, boulevard des Capucines, 43.
Martinet, boulevard des Capucines, 12 (Grand Hôtel).
Esther Paris-Persennet was a Paris portrayer in pastels and a copist, active 1845/68 (Thieme-Becker XXVI p. 236). She is – in Thieme-Becker – the only fitting female artist.
Minimally damaged original slipcase, booklet (16 pages, printed on one side only)

Glanz and Sageder seem improbable to me, but... As to the printing technique, it is just my opinion, not really stressable without having seen the cards.
Otherwise, I'll try to keep that girl I once knew out of my head and make it to the right place. Thank you for the adjustment.

Hello Tom and all,
First of all, thank you for the advance credit of faith in my abilities.
Tarot packs differ from „normal“ decks in that they have an additional court card, the Cavalier, a man on horseback, between Queen and Jack, plus 22 trumps: the Fool, mostly without a number, and 21 numbered ones, from 1 to 21. Makes 78 cards. Well, at the beginning, all tarot packs were Italian-suited, i.e. with Swords, Batons, Cups and Coins (these suits are still in use today, for example in Italy, and in the Spanish variant, in many parts of the world.) The trumps used to show typical figures and allegories, the Empress, the Lover, the Hermit, the World, the Last Judgment…
Another kind of tarot packs came up around the middle of the 18th century, this time with French suits (Hearts, Spades…) and completely different representations on the trumps: animals. Why? For mercantile reasons probably, or because people wanted more earthbound images, and no more admonition to Justice and Temperance when they were playing at cards.
From the Upper Rhine region the type spread over Middle and Northern Europe. It is no longer in use today, on the contrary to other types of tarot packs like the Austrian „Industrie und Glück“ (Industry and Fortune, named after the inscription on Trump 2), or the „Tarot Nouveau“ with representations of modern life in the city and on the countryside, still played in France and in the bordering part of Germany. Apart from those „standard“ packs, tarots were also deflected to show many other topics such as flowers, politics, history, geography, art… There is a lot to collect here.
The cards shown by Tom must be placed at the end of the evolution of animal tarots. They were printed in color lithography probably around 1910 as Geuens-Willaert took over from his parents in 1901 and seemingly ceased business activities in playing cards in the twenties. The pack would have been complete with 78 cards (the versions with 54 – and even less – cards belong to „Industrie und Glück“, and so to Austria-Hungary.)

"Cendrillon", that is, just to put it right. It comes from "cendre" = ashes

The same images were also published with „real“ playing cards in the corners by a „Courbière“ from Saint-Etienne in France. I could not find anything about the latter as a playing card maker, maybe it was just a stationery. The deck is probably circa 1900. On King of Diamonds the devil reads the newspaper „Le Figaro“, which page is signed „ZOLA“ at the bottom. This might be related to the publication in that journal of a series of articles supporting Dreyfus, a Jewish army officer (wrongly) accused of treason (to the Germans ;-)), by the well-known writer Emile Zola in 1897. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreyfus_affair
A possible publisher of your pack is David in Paris who used to have his games printed by Typography Vert, 8 rue François-Miron, Paris.

Thank you too. Your cards are no tarot cards, but there are tarot cards produced in the USA that use the same type of figures, with French suits though (Western Playing Card Co., Racine, WI, & Poughkeepsie, NY. Tarock Playing Cards. Complete with 54 cards, circa 1935, not listed in Hochman/Dawson). Here are some pictures.

Hi all,
The Black Pack was designed in 1992 (see the signature on the Ace of Spades) and most probably produced the same year.
It is an interesting story you are telling, and it would be nice if true, but it is evidently rather difficult to verify. What is certain is that your deck is not „the only one left in existence“ as CARTORAMA offered that deck in its last catalog (for 25 Euro, which is about USD35). But you are right when you say that it is a cool deck. The text card that belongs to the pack says „For Personal FREEDOM and Social JUSTICE“: who wouldn’t want that?
The mention of the maker’s name, Fournier, on the Four of Clubs (on Spanish-suited cards from Spain, i.e. the ones with Swords, Coins and so on, it would be the Five of Swords) is not necessarily connected with a tax: stamp duty was cancelled in Spain in 1979. Which does not mean that the tax itself was abolished. In Germany the obligation to apply a tax stamp on a card of each pack for sale (usually the Ace of Hearts) was dropped by the Nazi government in 1939 (they needed personal to pull triggers instead of stamping playing cards), but the tax on playing cards disappeared only in 1982 (on the topic of duty stamps, see http://www.endebrock.de/pc-taxes.html)

We at CARTORAMA use to review mostly – but by far not only – ancient decks from time to time. Here is our text to the featured Cartes Parisiennes:

Cartes Parisiennes

Lovers, who caused a furor, adorn the luxurious deck „Cartes Parisiennes". It is particularly nobly fitted with gilt edges in red gold (hearts and diamonds) and yellow gold (spades and clubs). The same deck also exists in a plain version. This deluxe model here dates from 1853.
It had been commissioned by the short-lived fashion magazine „Le Caméléon“ with the cardmaker Gibert in Paris. The figures show 4 French couples: the Comte de Brissac and Diane de Poitiers, the Comtesse de Rochefort and the Chevalier d'Éon, Marion Delorme and Cinq-Mars as well as Bussy d'Amboise and the Lady of Montsoreau. These last two couples yielded enough material for novels from the feathers of the French writers Alfred de Vigny, Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas. The latter's depiction of life at the time of French King Henri III was published in 1846 under the simple title of „La Dame de Monsoreau“.
The cloak-and-dagger opus even made it on to television, 120 years later. Yet in the pack of cards the lovers evidently just play the roles of models. The hand-colored steel engravings do not show authentic fashion from the time of the protagonists, rather exquisite robes of more recent times. Which indeed are so rich in detail, so lushly illustrated that you can literally hear the satin rustling. The portrays of the pairs also remain strikingly close to handed down representations. Laid down side by side, the backgrounds of Jack, Queen and King join to a consistent scenery, outlined in shades of grey.
Noteworthy is the narrow margin of the cards. This is – connoisseurs will know – due to the gilding of the edges. For this purpose, the pack needs to be grinded and sanded in order to let the gold foil stick better to the paper.