Grimaud - Cartes Catalanes

10/05/2026

Grimaud - Cartes Catalanes

INTRODUCTION & IDENTIFICATION DETAILS

This post focuses on a 48-card Spanish-suited pack from the renowned French maker B.P. Grimaud. It is an example of the uncommon French-Catalan pattern, and designated as Cartes Catalanes across modern commercial releases and archival databases alike. A style seemingly confined to a specific region of France, a trait it curiously shares with the Franco-Spanish or Aluette pattern.

While I have not been able to definitively establish the date of our pack, there is good reason to believe it dates from the late 19th or, at the very latest, the early 20th century.

Before proceeding, I should point out that the limited information available on this pattern is repeated almost word-for-word across standard reference sources, including The World of Playing Cards (WOPC). Moreover, the IPCS has yet to assign it a dedicated pattern sheet. We will attempt to expand upon these points through a broader historical overview, iconographic examination, and insights that can be gathered from other copies documented in the literature.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

To understand the presence of a Spanish-suited deck on French territory, we must turn to the Treaty of the Pyrenees of 1659, under which the historic region of Roussillon (present-day Pyrénées-Orientales) was ceded to the Kingdom of France. Despite the change in political rule, the local population retained its Catalan roots and language, which naturally extended to their traditional card games.

It is precisely within this geographical framework, centered on the city of Perpignan, that the style we know today as the French-Catalan pattern became established between the late 18th and the 19th century.

ICONOGRAPHY & FORMAL AFFILIATION

Morphologically, this pattern is described as deriving from the old Spanish National pattern. From it, it retains features such as the kings' long robes concealing their feet, rearing horses, and straight-sided cups. The aces likewise display remarkable affinity, particularly the Ace of Coins: a large central coin adorned with decorative ribbons. Finally, I should mention the persistence of the pintas (border breaks), an element missing in the Aluette pattern.

Divergences from the parent pattern include the faces of the kings, depicted with thick beards, as well as the absence of distinct shapes in the batons held by the court cards, which in this style adopt the generic appearance of the rest of the suit.

As for the link between the French-Catalan and Catalan patterns, it seems to be purely nominal and in all likelihood tied to mere geographical proximity. Although both are descendants of the seminal Spanish National pattern, the modern Catalan pattern was reconfigured in Barcelona during the mid-19th century with a distinct visual identity. Consequently, no direct correlations can be drawn between the two that do not ultimately trace back to the common ancestor from which both derive.

ABOUT OUR COPY

The first hurdle in establishing a date for this pack was the lack of a tax stamp, usually found on the 2 of Swords in decks of this type.

Without this official marking, any chronological assessment must rely on material examination and direct comparison with other Grimaud specimens documented in reference holdings and databases, such as the Fournier Museum catalog, The Coral Collection, WWPCM, or GKards.

Printing Technique: Direct examination of our pack points to the use of lithography for the outlines and stencil colouring, a technique consistent with the periods described in the sources.
Corners and Lettering: Documented examples point to two main configurations. Specimens dated between 1880 and c. 1900 show square corners and the mark Paris along the lower-left margin of the courts, just as in our pack. By contrast, the 1894 copy in the Fournier Museum features rounded corners and the inscription France, traits that carried over into decks produced in the early 20th century (up to around the 1920s).
Back Design: The pattern on our deck matches that documented on specimens sharing square corners and the 'Paris' inscription, whereas pieces of a later date tend to feature different motifs.

Grimaud's documented output of copies with rounded corners and the 'France' lettering by 1894 provides a significant temporal reference point. While some overlap between print runs cannot be completely discounted, the combination of square corners, the 'Paris' mark, and the matching back pattern most likely places our copy in an earlier period, or close to that late-19th-century transition.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Far more than a mere geographical label, the French-Catalan pattern embodies the survival and distinctive evolution of the early Spanish National pattern in a tightly defined corner of France. Given the scarcity of dedicated literature and the lack of official cataloguing, examining the physical evidence of our copy takes us past generic descriptions: its physical traits do more than just anchor it to late-19th-century production, they offer tangible testimony to a transitional chapter for both the maker and the cardmaking trade of the time.