Just a few weeks ago, I reaquired a copy of the Swiss 1JJ. I used to own a copy distributed by U.S. Games, but I lost it long ago. The one I just acquired is a French language edition published by AGM AGMuller (no mention of U.S. Games on the box).
One thing I noticed while looking through the deck the other day is that "Fabrique de Cartes a Schafffhouse" is inscribed on the Two of Pentacles. I remember seeing that on one other deck I have, the Tarot Classic, also published originally by AGM AGMuller and distributed by U.S. Games (the initial "M" in the Four of Pentacles of the Tarot Classic stands for Muller of AGMuller). I wondered if the two decks were related somehow. I did some rummaging around in old forum threads on the Tarot Classic and came up with this from a post by Ross G Caldwell earlier this year:
"From Walter Hass, Die traditionellen Tarocke der Spielkartenfabrik Müller, in
Daniel Grüter, Walter Hass, Max Ruh eds., "Schweizer Spielkarten 2" (Schaffhausen, 2004), pp. 55-73.
English summary (John McLeod) -
'Around 1830 the card maker J.G. Rauch of Diessenhofen brought out a Tarot pack, which he supplied primarily to the canton (Switzerland) of Grisons. This Tarot designs, in the historicizing style of the period, was acquired by Johannes Müller I, when he took over Rauch's factory in 1838; it has since been modified several times and is still produced today. Towards the end of the 19th century Müller added three more Tarot designs to his range: around 1875 a Tarot de Marseilles which until then had been manufactured by the Geneva card making family Gassmann using older techniques; around 1885 a French suited Tarot with views and around 1890 a Tarot with genre scenes of the tarot nouveau type. All these cards were intended for use by players, and as Tarot playing declined in Switzerland they were dropped from the range, with the exception of the oldest, which goes back to J. G. Rauch (Swiss 1JJ). The article traces the history of these four traditional Tarot packs of the firm of Müller and their variants, points out iconographic relationships, and tries to identify the regions in which they were marketed.
The esoteric Tarot packs, which after 1970 became the most important part of the business of the Schaffhausen playing-card factory, are outside of the scope of this article. Nevertheless it should be remembered that the firm owes its successful entry into the esoteric Tarot market to its oldest surviving design 1JJ, which continues today to serve the needs of the surviving players in the Surselva as well as the devotees fo the esoteric Tarot.' (pp. 72-73)"
I also found this description of the Swiss 1JJ deck from Joan Bunning's site (
www.learntarot.com):
"This version of the 1JJ Swiss Tarot deck is published by AGMuller in Switzerland and distributed by U. S. Games. Versions of the 1JJ Swiss have existed for over a century. One was created by Swiss cardmaker Johann Georg Rauch circa 1831-1838. In this deck there is a "JGR" on the four of coins. Another version was produced circa 1865 using Rauch's woodblocks, but the "JGR" has been removed. In both these cases, the titles are in French, but titles in the current deck are in English. The major arcana cards depict 19th century costumed figures. Card 2 is the Roman goddess Junon, and Card 5, the god Jupiter. The Two of Pentacles has the traditional ribbon showing the location of the manufacturer "Fabrique de Cartes a Schaffhouse."
The edition of the Swiss 1jj that I have has the initials "IM" on it, which I believe is a reference to the Johannes Muller mentioned in the first quote. So I gather from this that AGMuller acquired the Swiss 1JJ and the Tarot Classic decks when they purchased Rauch's Schaffhouse factory. I think it's likely that the design of both decks are 19th century originals that may have been at least partly based on earlier decks, with considerable artistic license. In the case of the Tarot Classic, it would presumably have been loosely based on the Tarot de Marseilles of Caude Burdel and in the case of the Swiss 1jj, on Le Fanu's unnamed 16th Century deck.
Alan
LOL!
** alibris books have this for AU$3.21 NEW... WOW!