When I first started getting interested in historic tarots, I didn’t realize how much I would enjoy reading with them. Over the last 5 years I’ve refined my taste in what I look for and wanted to share my favorites. I’ll talk about why I want my historic tarot esthetics to be a certain way in another post. In this entry, I’m listing independent artists who do historic image restoration for tarot. If I’ve missed anyone please do let me know so that I can add them.
I’ve divided this list into two parts, organized alphabetically: first, makers whose decks I have in my collection, and show in the accompanying video then a much longer list of all other makers that I have come across in my research.
My Favorites
Artisan Tarot redraws ancient tarots using a meticulous retracing and recolcration process. Their decks are printed on hard-wearing casino card stock and offered at affordable prices. You can see an example of their Vieville in my previous video on aesthetics in restoration.
Marco Benedetti is a prolific restorer and creator of original decks based on ancient tradition. He primarily works in facsimiles but has done some restorative work to expand taroccchi decks to a full 78 cards, for example. His production methods and card stock vary from project to project – some are printed in his home studio while others are printed commercially or available on demand. Find him on his Facebook page, The Gamecrafter, and Make Playing Cards. Marco has worked with tarot historian and blogger Sherryl E. Smith to produce information cards for some of his decks.
Giordano Berti of Rinascimento Italian Art is probably tied in my esteem with Pablo Robledo for his historic deck creations. He does not do much restoration, instead choosing the best source images he can and then producing them in high fidelity on beautiful card stock that is flexible, durable, and easy to handle. His works include faithful facsimiles of tarots from across Europe, colorized versions of tarots that were only discovered as monochrome images or in printing plate form, and modern esoteric tarots in a variety of styles. Each of his decks comes with a pithy guidebook with information about the particular style, region, or time period of the deck and he also offers classes in reading tarot (in Italian).
Ian Cumpstey of Skadi Press (Northern Displayers) in Cumbria, England, makes historically-inspired decks of playing cards and tarots. His most true-to-form tarot is the Grand Parade; I have his Rare Triumphs and love all the choices he made for alternative imagery and characters. Mr. Cumpstey prints his cards on playing card stock for durability.
Heather Hall primarily prints historic playing cards as part of her reenactment offerings, but she has a version of the Rosenwald in two colorations with an optional Minchiate expansion pack. Her decks are among the most affordable on this list.
Sullivan Hismans of Tarot Sheet Revival does a sensitive and painstaking job restoring the artwork of historic decks to as close to an original high-quality print as possible. Unfortunately I find his card stock to be fragile and un-shuffleable, so I only have a couple of his decks.
The brainchild of Osvaldo Menegazzi, Il Meneghello is renowned for their historic reproductions and often whimsical new creations as well. They work with a stable of artists to restore and sometimes colorize decks where no extent example exists. All of their work is handmade and produced in Italy.
Yves Reynaud’s Tarot of Marseilles Heritage specializes in tarots of the traditional Marseilles pattern. The cards are closer on the scale to facsimile than restoration, and for that reason I only have one example. The card stock is a bit on the stiffer side but manageable and his decks are among the most affordable as they are printed at a commercial press.
Pablo Robledo is an alchemist who combines careful retouching with modern technology to produce luscious, vivid restorations. He specializes in French tarots but occasionally offers a surprise, such as the Vandenborre or a playing card game. He also partners with Kartograme to offer handmade versions of decks using his restored images. You can contact him directly on Facebook, and occasionally his decks are available from TarotArts or eBay.
Additional Options
Agnes Kappler / Kartograme produce handmade decks using a process as close to original 17th century methods as possible. The process requires exacting precision, specific materials and many hours of labor per deck to produce, and this is reflected in the cost. She also makes her restored images available on commercially printed casino-grade cards stock for a more affordable option.
Artemisia Print Art is a new-to-me artist out of Spain. She creates fine art prints and also happens to have redrawn the anonymous Tarot of Paris. All of her work is sold print-on-demand, so the card stock choice is up to you, as is the labor of cutting and finishing.
The Cartomancer offers many different styles and eras of decks, including cartomancy and lenormand decks, printed on modern, slick card stock.
Shell David / East Tarot is someone I was following for a while and lost track of. Given that he has 600+ sales on Etsy I suspect he did do some small print runs of his restored decks at some point. No idea what his plans are for future but he does excellent work from what I’ve seen online. Check out his YouTube for some walkthroughs.
Editions SIVILIXI offers an original facsimile of the Vieville and also carries the only known remaining back stock of the anonymous Tarot of Paris facsimile that was printed by Grimaud in the 1980’s.
Gergely Bagameri of Midnight Tarot creates historic-inspired decks with a comedic twist. Some are fairly close to the original while others are wildly offbeat.
Ella Mortimer has restored some unusual decks including the Jost Aman [YouTube walkthrough] and a historic mashup she calls Tarot of Geofroy & Solis [YouTube walkthrough]. Her decks are available on The Gamecrafter.
Museo Internazionale dei Tarocchi works with a number of independent artists to offer restored reproductions and new modern tarots.
NovaMundi Tarot [YouTube] is a prolific artist, she has a variety of restorations, re-colorations and re-creations of modern decks. Different decks are available on The Gamecrafter and Make Playing Cards.
Vincent Pitisci restored and recolored several classic and historic decks, before he passed away in 2024. His work is still available on his MPC shop.
Tarotgraphe produce fine handmade tarots in a similar mode to Kartograme, at a slightly more affordable price.
Tarot Revive offer restorations of Italian, French and Flemish tarots printed onto commercial card stock.
Patrick Valenza‘s Tarot Resurrections are faithful scans of original copies from the artist’s private collection. Printed on commercial card stock, they are affordable, durable, and easy to handle.
Vieux Monde offers cheep and cheerful facsimiles of some of the most famous historic decks.
