Le Fanu
I think I've kind of found an answer to this question...
The only known deck published after Mme Lenormand's death was that weirdly indecipherable Grand Jeu Lenormand deck. It bears no relationship to the so-called Lenormand decks with rings and foxes and clouds etc
The Lenormand deck which we are familiar with seems to be traceable to (don't be shocked) Germany (see A Wicked Pack of Cards p 141). The iconography is more similar to German decks than French decks. Detlef Hoftman has shown that their prototype can be clearly traced back to "a lovely pack of fancy cards" called das Spiel der Hofnung published in Nurenberg, Germany (was it Prussia then?) in 1800 and is actually a racing game using "36 illuminated cards."
The cards are arranged in a square in numerical order (6 X 6 cards?), dice are thrown and you move the counters and try to reach the 36th card. Some "squares/cards" are lucky, some unlucky. A bit like Snakes & Ladders. Landing on flowers would be good, landing on the coffin would be bad (kind of thing.) Instructions to the game bear the line "with the same cards one can also undertake an entertaining fortune telling game." But weirdly, only 32 cards are used (to tell fortunes; 8 rows of four). The symbols and numbers are exactly the same as the "petit lenormands".
Basically, there is no evidence that these kinds of cards were used by Mme Lenormand or indeed that they derive from French packs. Accounts of her reading with cards are very non-specific. Later writers have talked of the "Bezique" deck or the "Piquet" deck (both containing 32 cards) and these cards with the familiar symbols are seemingly not French at all. They have more in common with German/Bavarian decks and - of course - are much more available in Germany nowadays than any other country. No coincidence perhaps. No deck of this type was produced in France until the end of the 19th Century when it was erroneously marketed as a "Lenormand" deck.
The only known deck published after Mme Lenormand's death was that weirdly indecipherable Grand Jeu Lenormand deck. It bears no relationship to the so-called Lenormand decks with rings and foxes and clouds etc
The Lenormand deck which we are familiar with seems to be traceable to (don't be shocked) Germany (see A Wicked Pack of Cards p 141). The iconography is more similar to German decks than French decks. Detlef Hoftman has shown that their prototype can be clearly traced back to "a lovely pack of fancy cards" called das Spiel der Hofnung published in Nurenberg, Germany (was it Prussia then?) in 1800 and is actually a racing game using "36 illuminated cards."
The cards are arranged in a square in numerical order (6 X 6 cards?), dice are thrown and you move the counters and try to reach the 36th card. Some "squares/cards" are lucky, some unlucky. A bit like Snakes & Ladders. Landing on flowers would be good, landing on the coffin would be bad (kind of thing.) Instructions to the game bear the line "with the same cards one can also undertake an entertaining fortune telling game." But weirdly, only 32 cards are used (to tell fortunes; 8 rows of four). The symbols and numbers are exactly the same as the "petit lenormands".
Basically, there is no evidence that these kinds of cards were used by Mme Lenormand or indeed that they derive from French packs. Accounts of her reading with cards are very non-specific. Later writers have talked of the "Bezique" deck or the "Piquet" deck (both containing 32 cards) and these cards with the familiar symbols are seemingly not French at all. They have more in common with German/Bavarian decks and - of course - are much more available in Germany nowadays than any other country. No coincidence perhaps. No deck of this type was produced in France until the end of the 19th Century when it was erroneously marketed as a "Lenormand" deck.