I mentioned in the post about the BN Molds that the old fashioned method of producing Tarot cards was to print the Black lines with a block, and then to hand-stencil each of the colors one-by-one.

Amazingly, hand-stenciled cards are still available from cartier-enlumineur Jean-Claude Flornoy, the same craftsman who has published the very successful 78 card edition of the Jean Noblet tarot.

I first encountered these cards almost five years ago on the recommendation of my friend Jean-Michel David. I had asked which cards he recommended for the study of the Marseille Tarots, and he highly recommended the Flornoy editions of the trumps of the Jean Noblet and Jean Dodal decks.

On the Atelier page on Flornoy’s site, you can see the steps taken to reproduce these cards.

Here are examples of the existing cards, and the hand-stenciled Flornoy restoration:

Jean Noblet Tarot, Fool

Jean Dodal Tarot, Fool

The new 78 card version of the Jean Noblet is a delight, but nothing produced in the mass market fashion on a printing press can equal the look and feel of these limited production editions.

The work to produce these cards is extremely labor intensive. I’ve heard unconfirmed rumor that Flornoy will cease producing these decks, if he hasn’t already. I highly recommend obtaining copies while they are still available. They will almost certainly become treasured heirlooms.

Jean-Claude Flornoy’s special 22 card editions of the Jean Noblet Tarot and Jean Dodal Tarot are available on his website on the Tarot Boutique page.