DECK OF THE MONTH

Just like the "Joker of the Month" in the Jokers section we will select a "Deck of the Month" from all the decks that we could add to our collection during that month. It will be what we consider our best find. We've started this section in April 2007 and without any doubt we can say here that over the years there will be antique, vintage and modern decks shown on these pages. Age, design and value of the chosen decks may be very different each time.

The latest acquisition consisted of 2 decks. One was a standard French pattern, probably Grimaud, from the 1860's or 70's. Tax date 1853.
The other deck was a Lenormand deck and the reason to buy this lot. However, it's the first Lenormand deck on this spot and the question was how to present them here. Should I show all the cards in numerological sequence on this page or present them as I usually do.
As you can see I've decided on the latter. The other numbered cards will be shown on a separate page.

This specific Lenormand deck was lithographically printed and published by Geûens - Seaux from Bruges, Belgium, between 1895 and 1901. The company was the successor of the famous Daveluy company, so this Lenormand deck has the exact same images as the one that was produced by Daveluy since 1873. It's possible that the Daveluy stones were used. And that does include the small images of the courts, which were already published by Daveluy as a patience sized deck since around 1850. On top of each suit I've added the images of that Daveluy patience deck, as shown in the Daveluy book (Biebouw/Clays/Cremers/d'Hondt/Smet, 2004).

Edouard Benedictus Maria Geûens was born in Bruges in 1840 and he married Emma Virginie Octavie Marie Seaux from Roeselaere in 1874. In 1875 they took over the printshop of Corneille de Moor, a former printer's colleague of Nicolas Daveluy, at 35 Philip Stockstraat. In 1895 the Geûens Seaux family took over the playing card printshop of Daveluy at the St. Jansstraat, but it took them until July 1896 to rebuild and set up their business there. During the rebuilding of the printshop at the St. Jansstraat, it is likely that the Geûens Seaux family commissioned the printing of playing cards to the lithographic printer Emile Bonte, at 51 Beenhouwersstraat in Bruges.
The Geûens - Seaux company only lasted until 1901, when the name was changed to Geûens - Willaert. That printing company existed until 1933, but I think that production of playing cards had been abandoned long before 1933.

The deck exists in two versions. In Belgium decks with texts, even advertising ones, are almost always published in a French and a Flemish (Dutch) version. For this Lenormand deck you'll have to brush up your French. I don't know much about Lenormand decks or how to use them. We've never been interested in fortune telling and have only added some Lenormand decks to our collection, because they have small playing cards in the corners.
If you're interested, I've written an article about the Dondorf Lenormand deck and its variations.

So not much more to tell about this deck, only that a few cards have smudges, for which I apologize, but sometimes there's no choice.


CLICK THE "DAME" TO SEE THE REST OF THE NUMBERED CARDS.


The detail of card #22 is mentioned in the Daveluy book for the Daveluy version, together with the Belgian flag and the name of Bruges on the stern of the ship on card #3. We never had the Daveluy version, so I cannot check that last detail of card #3. In Luc Biebouw's book about Belgian Playing Cards he also mentions both details in the descriptions of the Geûens - Seaux version and the later Geûens - Willaert one. However, the name Bruges doesn't appear in this Geûens - Seaux version.