deck-23-02

This is probably the most remarkable king in the pack and it will remind most collectors immediately of the transformation deck by Grimaud, known as Jeanne Hachette. However, this deck was printed and published in Germany. This Jeanne Hachette is usually dated as c1865, which makes it somewhat contemporary with the Grimaud deck, which was made since the 1850's.

Both decks are named after the queen of spades, which shows the figure of Jeanne Hachette with the city of Bauvais in the background. It refers to the heroic act of a woman during the siege of Bauvais by the troops of the Duke of Burgundy. The woman was the daughter of a peasant and known as Jeanne Fourquet. Her nickname was Jeanne Hachette (Joan the Hadget). Here she's depicted in armour, but in real she had fought in plain clothes. The heroic act was that she, ax in hand, seized a flag that had been planted in one of the battlements by a Burgundy soldier and had hurled him into the moat. That action uplifted the spirit of the defenders of Bauvais.

This deck was printed and published by Maximilian Frommann (1813 - 1866) from Darmstadt, Germany, around 1865. He had founded a print shop there in 1835. His initials can be found on the 8 of diamonds.
Nine of the 12 courts have the same images as those from the Grimaud deck, although the jack of spades has changed place with the jack of clubs. The diamond courts are completely different and original designs. The ace of clubs has the same design as in the Grimaud deck, but the aces of spades and diamonds were copied from another transformation deck: the Braun & Schneider deck from c1852. Many designs of the pip cards can be traced back to the Grimaud and Braun&Schneider decks too, but there are a number of original designs to be found too. If you want compare these decks for yourself, both are shown elsewhere on this site. Here are links to Grimaud deck and the Braun & Schneider deck. But for now:


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