Le Jeu de Marseille. Surrealist Card Game

Published by André Dimanche in Marseille in 1983, manufactured by Maitre-Cartier Grimaud. Surrealist card set designed by Victor Brauner, Andre Breton, Oscar Dominguez, Max Ernst, Jacques Herold, Wifredo Lam, Jacqueline Lamba and Andre Masson. The two jokers feature Ubu Roi, after Alfred Jarry's design. This set contains 52 playing cards (out of 54) and 1 colophon card with text by André Breton, in illustrated box, 9 x 6 x 2 cm. Unfortunately two cards are missing (Locks/Knowledge No. 2, and Wheels/Revolutions No.5). Moderate rubbing to the box, deck is in very good condition.

This tarot-inspired game, was originally conceived in Marseille in the early 1940s by André Breton and his surrealist friends, as they were gathering at the Villa Air-Bel in Marseille, fleeing from Nazi-occupied France. Breton remodelled the traditional 'bourgeois' playing card designs along Surrealist principles, renaming the suits: Locks (black) for Knowledge, Wheels (red) for Revolution, Stars (black) for Dreams and Flames (red) for Love and Desire. The designs were first published in VVV Magazine New York in 1943, devoted to the dissemination of Surrealism.