Tarot Nouveau

The Tarot Nouveau, French Tarot Nouveau or Bourgeois Tarot deck is a pattern of tarot cards. As such it differs from those tarot decks used in fortune-telling, such as the Tarot of Marseilles and Rider-Waite decks, in that the Tarot Nouveau is designed solely for playing the various tarot card games for which the 78-card tarot deck was originally devised, such as the game of French tarot. In the French language, this deck is often called the tarot à jouer or playing tarot. This usage is distinct from cartomancy and other divinatory purposes, for which the tarot is most commonly known outside Continental Europe. This deck is most commonly found in France, Wallonia, Romandy, Québec, and Denmark.[1][2]

Tarot Nouveau oudlers circa 1910

Origin
An early German Tarock trump card, showing center indices

This pattern originated in the late 19th century with the C.L. Wüst cardmaker of Frankfurt, Germany.[3][4][5][6] This earlier edition lacked the corner indices found on the later 20th century version published by French cardmakers such as Grimaud, but the values of trumps changed from Latin numerals common on older decks to Arabic numerals used in modern writing. These numerals were placed in the center of the panels in a Fraktur font similar to cards which were used for the German Tarock game of Cego. In the early 1900s, French cardmakers appropriated this pattern and would later add the corner indices now found on most modern card decks.[7] The largest manufacturers of this pattern are Cartamundi (and its subsidiaries) and Piatnik & Söhne.

Cards

The cards bear the French suits of spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs, rather than the Italian suits of swords, cups, coins and batons (typical in tarot decks used for cartomancy) or the traditional German suits of hearts, bells, acorns and leaves (commonly seen on Tarock and Schafkopf decks in East Germany, Austria and Hungary). The "pip" and court cards of the Tarot Nouveau are similar in format to those of the traditional 52-card deck, with the addition of the knight (chevalier) face card.

The atouts or trumps depict genre scenes of whimsical early 19th-century social activities of the well-to-do European bourgeoisie, hence a common alternate name for this deck, the "Bourgeois Tarot".[3] This is in contrast to the trionfi of Italian Tarocco decks and the Major Arcana of "esoteric" decks used for cartomancy, which have allegorical illustrations and, in cartomancy, interpretive meaning.

All cards use corner indices as opposed to the top-center indices of older tarot decks and their "esoteric" descendants used for readings; this allows the cards to be held in a single hand as is required for many card games. They also include reversible art for court and trump cards while traditional and modern reading tarots have full-length character art.

Composition
Tarot Nouveau court cards with English indices

The Tarot Nouveau deck, like most (but not all) tarot decks, is composed of 78 cards. 56 are suited in the traditional French suits, with 14 cards per suit; ten "pip" cards with values 1 to 10 (the ace bears the number 1 instead of the familiar "A", and usually ranks low), and four court cards: jack (valet), knight (chevalier or cavalier), queen (dame) and king (roi). The other 22 are the 21 atouts or trumps and one fool.[3] The deck is thus primarily different from the 52-card poker deck in the existence of the separate trump "suit", and the addition of the knight court card. With these cards removed the deck is identical to the 52-card deck for playing purposes. The face cards do not use the Parisian pattern (portrait officiel) but have their own unique illustrations. the fool, though similar in appearance and function to the joker card of poker decks, has differing origins (see Joker for more information).

Trumps

The 21 trumps in a Tarot Nouveau deck each have two scenes taking up the graphic portion of the card, in a roughly reversible fashion (one scene is always face-up), but unlike the court cards which have similar reversible art, most of the cards' scenes are not rotationally symmetrical. Each card has one scene show an "urban" representation of a particular trait or idea (listed below), while the other side depicts a more "rural" interpretation. These themes, instead of the more historic depictions, such as those used in the Tarot de Marseille, (known in cartomancy as the "Major Arcana") were chosen to represent tarot trumps in Unicode 7.0.[8] The scenes depicted are as follows:[9]

General themeCard number Unicode characterCard themeUrban representationRural representation
The four ages2 🃢 ChildhoodChildren playing in the parkBoys playing at the fête
3 🃣 YouthGroup of youths in the parkThree maidens in town clothes
4 🃤 MaturityIn the officeWomen with children
5 🃥 Old AgeGrandfatherGrandmother
The four times of day6 🃦 MorningBreakfastMowing the wheat
7 🃧 AfternoonDiscussion in the parlourRest in the field
8 🃨 EveningMusic roomThe family reunited on the doorstep
9 🃩 NightReturning home after huntingThe night watch
The four elements10 🃪 EarthThe mine
AirShepherd in the mountains
11 🃫 WaterBoating on the lake
FireThe picnic
The four leisures12 🃬 DanceSoiréeFolk dance
13 🃭 ShoppingThe storeThe village store
14 🃮 Open airHuntingFishing
15 🃯 Visual artsPhotographyPainting
The four seasons16 🃰 SpringGardener in the parkSheep shearing
17 🃱 SummerAt the racesDrying the wheat
18 🃲AutumnAt the marketThreshing wheat
19 🃳 WinterSkatingThe vigil
The game20 🃴 The gameCardsBowling
Folly21 🃵 CollectiveThe carnivalThe military parade
1 🃡 IndividualThe sad clownThe fool and the ballerina

References
  1. McLeod, John. French Tarot at Pagat.com. Retrieved 29 October 2016.
  2. McLeod, John. Tarok (Danish) at Pagat.com. Retrieved 29 October 2016.
  3. International Playing Card Society - The Bourgeois Tarot
  4. Wintle, Simon. Wüst “Encyclopedic Tarot” at the World of Playing Cards. Retrieved 29 October 2016.
  5. Wintle, Simon. Bourgeois Tarot at the World of Playing Cards. Retrieved 29 October 2016.
  6. Mann, Sylvia (1990). All Cards on the Table. Leinfelden: Deutsches Spielkarten-Museum. pp. 67, 83, 315.
  7. Wintle, Simon. Héron French tarot at the World of Playing Cards. Retrieved 29 October 2016.
  8. Unicode playing cards 7.0 (PDF)
  9. at Tarot Club d'Orphin (78). Retrieved 29 October 2016.
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