Etteilla Timeline and Etteilla card Variants - background

kwaw

re: Finet, 1924

books


books


books


From the back of:

books


https://books.google.fr/books?id=PZ8VAAAAYAAJ


Not sure when it says 'from the same address' it is referring to that of the publisher of the 'Tabac' or that of Finet which follows the list of books...
 

MikeH

Nice, Kwaw. I have added it to the timeline. But now I am puzzled, on two counts.

First, according to Depaulis, Finet published the "Nouvel Eteila", of 36 cards. Here it is the "Petit Eteila" that has 36 cards. Is that another name for the "nouvel Eteila"?

Secondly, the "Grand Etteilla" is a piquet deck, i.e. 32 cards, and sells for 2 fr. The "Petit Etteilla", the ad says, is 36 cards and sells for 3 fr. So the Petit is bigger than the Grand? It does sound like a misnomer.

I am also curious about what books came with them. the title and the reference to the "sibyl du faubourg Saint-Germain" are word for word what is on the title page of the "Julia Orsini" book (among other things), before she was invented. Could it be a Grand Etteilla book together with a piquet deck? Stranger things have happened.
 

kwaw

Nice, Kwaw. I have added it to the timeline. But now I am puzzled, on two counts.

First, according to Depaulis, Finet published the "Nouvel Eteila", of 36 cards. Here it is the "Petit Eteila" that has 36 cards. Is that another name for the "nouvel Eteila"?

Possibly, but one can't say for sure. There is also the 'necromancien' in the title...

Secondly, the "Grand Etteilla" is a piquet deck, i.e. 32 cards, and sells for 2 fr. The "Petit Etteilla", the ad says, is 36 cards and sells for 3 fr. So the Petit is bigger than the Grand? It does sound like a misnomer.

It sounds like a misnomer, or another example of how one can't determine decks of the time by their nomenclature alone.

I am also curious about what books came with them. the title and the reference to the "sibyl du faubourg Saint-Germain" are word for word what is on the title page of the "Julia Orsini" book (among other things), before she was invented. Could it be a Grand Etteilla book together with a piquet deck? Stranger things have happened.

Wasn't "sibyl du faubourg Saint-Germain" also the title of Mlle. Lenormand, Blocquel/Forsini surely only later adopted it following her fame. Here the advert is surely referring to the famous Mlle. Lenormand:

"Without resorting to the Sibyl of the Faubourg Saint-Germain, or the famous Moreau, everyone can know a time that they please..., and what should happen to him."

Mlle. Lenormand, although she never mentions Etteilla by name, surely knew his system and possibly used a version of his picquet system. Although she never mentions him, in her 1805 book she mentions how she became expert in 'cartonomancy', i.e., she uses Etteilla's term.

Another question is, can these single figure 36 card Etteilla variants (the 1797 and the Finet/Robert) be considered a precursor of the later 36 card Lenormand deck, with its extended piquet set inserts? If so, does that make the Lenormand an Etteilla variant?
 

Huck

Well, there was also ...

Here is a fragmented Kaplan deck, sold in 2006 for 180 $ ...

http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=4740321

etteilla-christies.jpg


with text:
"Le Petit Oracle des Dames, circa 1807, France, maker unknown, three sheets comprising 51 half cards, hand-colored copper engravings. The cards are full-length figures, double ended, no text on cards, French suits on 32 of the cards, no indices, these sheets are similar to a pack that was first published in 1807 by Veuve Guffier, Paris, that included text for fortune telling on the cards and was called Le Petit Oracle des Dames. Backs plain. Card size 1 11/16 in. (4.3 cm.) high, 2 1/8 in. (5.2 cm.) wide, one card is 2 1/16 in. (5.2 cm.) high, 2 1/8 in. (5.2 cm.) wide. Sheet sizes: 7 in. (18.8 cm.) high, 11 in. (28 cm.) wide, and 7 in. (18.2 cm.), 10 7/8 in. (27.5 cm.) wide, and 7 1/16 in. (18 cm.) high, 6 9/16 in. 16.6 cm.) wide. Slightly worn, two minor creases, minor repair on sides of three cards."

Not easy to recognize something. Luckily a part of the objects are presented by Stuart Kaplan, Encyclopedia I, at page 157.

Well, there we have the third Petit Orakel des Dames, now in 51 playing card halves.

Somehow an important document of playing card development, possibly a single piece. I don't know ... 180 $ ... what are we doing here ... :)

and

This are the Kaplan cards (Kaplan 1, p. 157), our variant Nr. 3 of the Petit Oracle des Dames

etteilla-36.jpg


etteilla-37.jpg


... rather obviously different to the both other versions. Kaplan wrote, that the cards were once two uncut sheets, so this is a free arrangement of the still existing elements, 51 half cards.

There are no numbers, and no text (Kaplan assumes, that text likely was added in the free space below some cards). "No numbers" and "half cards" would allow the printer to variate the compositions. But the relation between figures and usual playing cards seems to have been always the same (well, we don't see all pictures).

Still not explained ...

The 2 dogs looked usually this way ...

d0246203.jpg


... so this is another engraving.
 

Huck

As I said, clearly another engraving. The motif is the same, but the engraving is different.

Further it's a point, that the 51 half-cards have two different sizes.

There are rather much variations.
 

MikeH

Kwaw wrote,
Wasn't "sibyl du faubourg Saint-Germain" also the title of Mlle. Lenormand, Blocquel/Forsini surely only later adopted it following her fame. Here the advert is surely referring to the famous Mlle. Lenormand:
So far as I know LeNormand was never associated by name with a book with that title. It is the combination of the phrase "sibyle de faubourg Saint-Germain" with a book called "Le Grand Eteila, ou l'Art de Tirer les Cartes" that makes me think of "Julia Orsini", who was associated with just those two titles (of a book and of a person), even if the implication was, in both cases, the false one that the person was buying something describing the method of LeNormand.

Kwaw wrote,
Another question is, can these single figure 36 card Etteilla variants (the 1797 and the Finet/Robert) be considered a precursor of the later 36 card Lenormand deck, with its extended piquet set inserts? If so, does that make the Lenormand an Etteilla variant?
I think it depends on whether the pictures and/or the keywords are related or not. Having piquet figures and 36 cards wouldn't be enough. I don't know what the leNormand deck you are referring to looks like.

I have added the Kaplan "c. 1807" to the timeline. Thanks, Huck.
 

kwaw

The Petit Lenormand 36 cards are based on 'The Game of Hope'. However, there are other single figure cards with Piquet inserts (32 cards, or some extended to 36) related to Etteilla, for example this BM Pussey c.1820:

AN1613031610_l.jpg


AN1613031609_l.jpg


Complete piquet pack of 32 playing-cards for cartomancy (Etteilla)
Hand-coloured etching
Backs printed with a plaid pattern in green and red
Circa 1820

The pack is numbered throughout, and the value of each card is shown by a miniature card in the upper left corner. The subjects all relate to a marriage and its attendant circumstances.

For the full set:

http://www.britishmuseum.org/resear...?partid=1&assetid=1613031610&objectid=3098827
 

kwaw

Another Piquet single figure set:

AN01093590_001_l.jpg


AN01093590_001_l.jpg


AN01093593_001_l.jpg