As seen in my previous post, during the XVII th and the XVIII th century the city of Aix en Provence (located 20mn from Marseille) produced as much playing cards as Marseille but strangly we had no records of a Marseille tarot deck made in Aix.

But that was before I discovered 5 cards of a Marseille tarot deck made in Aix en Provence in 1666.

The Enquiery

To discover a Marseille tarot made in Aix en Provence, I had to contact every museums of the city of Aix en Provence. But most of these museums did not own any kind of tarot deck or playing cards exept one small museum “Musée du Vieil Aix”.

They own a little collection of playing cards made in Aix en Provence and also 5 cards of an old tarot de Marseille deck.
As this tarot caught my attention, I decided to take an appointment at the archives of this museum to check this cards with my own eyes.

THE APPOINTMENT

When I arrived at the appointment with the museum creator and a journalist of the famous news paper “Made in Marseille” (she was there to record the consultation for a film report about my work), I discovered 5 cards (Temperance, Two of wands, Queen of coin, Knight of wands and the Pope) of a very old tarot de Marseille deck and an old envelope with some inscriptions.

*This enveloppe contained 5 cards of an old tarot de Marseille deck*

According to the museum curator, this enveloppe contained some regular playing cards made by the famous Marseille engraver and cartier Guillaume Sellon in 1693 (yes the same one who engraved the tarot of “François Chosson”) and also 5 cards of a Marseille tarot deck made in 1666 by an Aix en Provence cartier called Thomas Dreveton (as written in the enveloppe).

Strangly, no one, exept museum staff, saw this tarot before.

The origin of these cards

How did we find these cards ?
According to the city, these cards were find in the aix municipal library “La Méjanes”. There were used as dividers during the XIX th and the XX th century after been moved to the “Musée du Vieil Aix” in 2008.

Recycling tarot cards into everyday objects was very common during this period. As cardboard was very expensive people used to use it for other uses. For exemple, Yves Reynaud and Wilfried Haudouin have fond 2 cards of an old Marseille tarot deck inside an old book cover.

Thomas Dreveton

According to the anotations on the enveloppe and the museum curator, this tarot was made by the Aix en Provence Cartier Thomas Dreveton. So I decided to make a search on this cartier and I discovered some interessting elements on the famous book of Henry-René d’Allemagne “History of playing cards from the XIV to the XX th century”.

In this book (page 332), Henry-René d’Allemagne founded an old document of the city of Aix en Provence dated from 1696. This document refers to a cartier called “Thomas Dreveton” who was the owner of a big playing cards factory in Aix en Provence.
According to this document, Thomas Dreveton had two sons called Jean and Thomas and two daugters Margueritte and Marthe. The Dreveton family was an important family of Cartier of Aix from the XVII until the very end of the XVIII th century.

As this Marseille tarot is dated 1666, the author of the deck may be the father Thomas Dreveton (the son who is also called Thomas was too young to have made this tarot) or may be the grandfather of Thomas Dreveton (I have to search the first name of his grandfather at the city archives).

Two of wands, queen of coin and knight of wands from the Thomas Dreveton tarot deck

The analysis

As I introduced the historical context of this deck, I will now talk about the deck itself.
Thanks to this appointment I was happy to take it in my hands and so I get some precious informations.

The paper

The paper used for this deck is a 100% cotton rag paper, as it was mostly used in Provence (Marseille, Aix, Avignon, etc) during the XVII th century and the begining of the XVIII th century.

This paper is very resistant and stands the test of time. Cotton rag paper retains better the glue between the two 160 GSM sheets of paper and it also retains better the soap of the lamination and the painting.

Unfortunately as the production of playing cards increased at the end of the XVII th century, a cotton rag paper shortage occurated in Provence in the course of the XVIII th century and so Maitres cartiers begun using another kind of cotton paper.

The Lamination

As told previously, these 5 cards were used as library divider during two centuries and so we can’t only imagine how many hands have touched these cards across the years.
Moreover I noticed that the corners of some cards have been rounded years after their creation.
So that mean the deck was used for playing or for divination during many years before it was used by the municipal library (rounded corners appeared lately in the history of playing cards).

But despite this fact, the soap lamination was still preserved. When I put the cards at the light, I was able to see the glossy of this 358 years old lamination.
The paper was also still smooth thanks to the soap of Marseille (cotton rag paper is very scratchy without the lamination).
This element show us the incredible skills of the cartier who handcrafted this tarot (I hope the lamination on my decks will still be preserved too after more than 350 years 🙏).

*Temperance and the Two of wands from the Thomas Dreveton tarot of 1666*

THE COLORS

I will restore the cards later just for the pleasure to see the original colors of this wonderfull masterpiece of history but they are still in a good condition. We can notice that the painting used for the deck was a good quality painting.
There is 7 different colors in this deck :

Yellow : The yellow used for this deck was very flashy.
Flesh : The flesh color looks like the color used for the Jean Payen tarot of 1713.
Red : The red color was also very flashy.
Green : The green was very sweet, I never saw a green like this before, it is also very well preserved (usually green color turn very dark).
Cyan : The cyan color was in very good condition (unfortunately it turned grey when I took the picture). It was very flashy and looks like the cyan color used for the Dodal from the BNF.
Blue / Purple : This color was very similar to the color used in the Noblet’s tarot that is not 100% blue and not 100% purple.
Black : The black color was still dark (it sometimes turned blue or brown in other decks) but it is sometimes erased.

the iconography

The iconography of this tarot is the iconography of the earliest Marseille tarot.
As most tarot de Marseille decks made during the XVII th century, the deck of Thomas Dreveton is a also a type 1 tarot de Marseille.
We can confirm it examining Temperance’s headdress, the Knight’s, the Pope’s faces, etc.

The lines are very similars (but not exactly the same) to the Philippe Vachier’s tarot of 1639.

*The knight of wands and the Pope from the Thomas Dreveton’ tarot.*

The Back of the cards

The back of the cards is exactly the same as the back of the Jean Payen’s tarot of 1743 (I superposed the two backs on Photoshop and they matched at 100%).
What does it means ? I heard that maitres cartiers used to buy the back engraved wood board to engravers.
Maybe Thomas Dreveton buy the back engraved wood to the same engraver as Jean Payen ?

If you have some clues about that, don’t hesitate to write a coment.

CONCLUSION

The Tarot of Thomas Dreveton is the first Marseille tarot made in Aix en Provence that we found today but it won’t be the last.
As we found many complete Marseille tarot made in Marseille, I’am sure we will find a complete deck made in Aix en Provence.

In many point, this deck testifies to the unique skill of the maîtres cartiers from Aix and to the great quality of their cards (not only tarot cards).
As people who lived in Aix en Provence were very rich, the quality of the tarots had to be hight in contrast to Marseille’s modest population. (This is still the case today).

According to my searches, rich Aix en Provence’s family still own antique Marseille tarots made in Aix and Marseille.

Maybe they will be released after the sale of an heritage ?

This post is the first about the Thomas Dreveton’s tarot but not the last. I will continue my searches and I will share with you further informations that I will find.

But as I’am not an expert on tarot history, yours analysis and feedback will be very usefull and fully appreciated so don’t hesistate to share your opinion and your point of view in the coment section bellow.