A look behind the scenes. Sneak peek through the designer’s eyes. Evalyne Hall – J.Jerger’s Tarot de Besançon “Why do an historical reproduction?, I was asked for The Queen’s Sword. The journey with the deck began when I began translating Du Jeu des Tarots and Recherches Sur les Tarots from Le Monde Primatif Volume 8. As I was translating the essays, I realized that two different decks were used for examples in the book. Antoine Court De Gébelin used an unidentifiable TdM and le Comte de Mellet (Louis-Raphael Lucrece de Fayolle) described a similar deck with Jupiter and Junon replacing the Pope and the Popess. I had never heard of this deck, having a limited Marseille knowledge (back then), but I knew that those images had to be included in the book. Based on Jupiter and Junon, I first found the 1JJ Swiss deck (OPP and much too new). A Google image search then led me to the British Museum and the Biblioteque National de France where I was able to locate four Besançon style decks; however, each deck had difference in some of the cards. In particular, with the Devil and the Four of Pentacles, Mellot used the phrases “He…
