UC Featured Collector for Mar/April 2014 - Robert Lancaster

[vasta41]

I really like the African themed courts. I'd love to see a modern deck with African courts.

What do you mean by a "modern deck"?

I guess I mean a "new" deck.. made by one of the major companies or a KS campaign.

[RSLancastr]

I really like the African themed courts. I'd love to see a modern deck with African courts.

What do you mean by a "modern deck"?

I guess I mean a "new" deck.. made by one of the major companies or a KS campaign.

I agree, that would be nice.

[RSLancastr]

In honor of St. Patrick's day, here are two more "from the vault":

==========[ IrishPlayingCards ]==========
[ucimg]http://i1322.photobucket.com/albums/u570/RSLancastr/IrishPlayingCards_zps8c8be4f0.jpg[/ucimg]

==========[ IrishLegend ]==========
[ucimg]http://i1322.photobucket.com/albums/u570/RSLancastr/IrishLegend_zpsc32ad3c1.jpg[/ucimg]

[mmiikk]

@robert: one of your early posts you apologise to another member for 'blathering on' as you call it. i say keep going! i enjoy the detail and what seems like vast knowledge on just about everything. it really helps a new collector like me see the historical side to this, and that there is so much more out there than just bicycle and kickstarter.

[montecarlojoe]

Yes if theres any where to go into obsessive detail it's here - YOUR thread. Have at it I say!

[RSLancastr]

@robert: one of your early posts you apologise to another member for 'blathering on' as you call it. i say keep going! i enjoy the detail and what seems like vast knowledge on just about everything. it really helps a new collector like me see the historical side to this, and that there is so much more out there than just bicycle and kickstarter.

Yes if theres any where to go into obsessive detail it's here - YOUR thread. Have at it I say!

@mmiikk, @montecarlojoe: I appreciate the permission/encouragement - thanks!

Coming soon to a theater near you: RSL - Licensed to Blather

[Jock1971]

I love celtic Knotwork, so the irish legend deck is right up my street, Thanks again for sharing

[RSLancastr]

I love celtic Knotwork, so the irish legend deck is right up my street, Thanks again for sharing

I prefer German Knockwurst myself, but... Oh wait, I see - never mind!

You're welcome, and thanks for appreciating!

[RSLancastr]

==========[ GratefulDead ]==========

One of several different decks carrying the name of this iconic rock band, this deck was published by Grateful Dead Productions, Inc. in 1998, and was illustrated by artist Michael R. Everett.

It sports many of the symbols long associated with the band, such as skulls, skeletons, red roses and wagon wheels.

==========[ AuthenticAmericanIndian_NorthernPlainsCollection_I ]==========

Authentic American Indian Playing Cards
Northern Plains Collection I

Published by American Creative Endeavors, Inc. in 1991
and designed and drawn by artists:

• John Beheler, Mahed Wayanka (Looks Within), an enrolled member of the Yankton Sioux Tribe located in Wagner, South Dakota, and
• Douglas Yellowbird, an enrolled member of the Salish Kootenai/Flathead Tribe of Montana.

ARTIST DESIGN INTERPRETATION

Attention to detail was an objective that required respect for the sacred, such as: there are no canupa (sacred pipes) cradled in their arms, nor are any of their faces painted (face painting often reflected a warrior's personal vision).

Use of the four sacred colors are purposely meant to solicit further understanding of unity. The artist utilized facial images, clothing design, weaponry, and color selection to create the original images before you. The images, are in no manner, a rendition or depiction of any specific person, family, band or tribe,; but do represent the collective culture of the Northern Plains Indians.

American Creative Endeavors, Inc. will serve as a corporate entity which will strive to promote economic development for American Indian artists. Watch for other products featuring our exclusive designs.

The above quote, and the descriptions of cards in the quote below are taken from the three double-sided Information Cards which come with the deck:

• The Princess of Hearts wears a fringed buckskin dress which incorporates the star of unity. She also wears a long bone-plated breastplate which often symbolizes her wealth and status among the people. Her dress is decorated with elk teeth which reminds us of female endurance.
• The Chief of Clubs wears the star-patterned shirt which reminds us of our oneness with the universe. He carries the staff which symbolizes his status as a leader of his people.
• The Ace of Spades incorporates the Eagle, which is considered the sacred messenger. Winged-ones carry on their wings the teachings of the Great Spirit. The star symbolizes the universe, while the Eagle personifies the presence of Wakan Tanka,the Great Spirit.
• The Trickster, depicted here as the devious coyote, could appear in many forms. He is portrayed here as the flutist of a dance that will net his supper. Trickster stories often convey moral lessons that caution the listener to seek the answers to hidden messenges.

==========[ StarTrekTOS ]==========


From my old web site:

The Deck

Star Trek! Though the original series was short-lived, few television series have had such an impact on modern culture.

Although it has spawned (so far) an animated series, three additional live-action series, nine movies and countless books, magazines, web sites, games and more, it is still the original series (or "TOS", as fans refer to it) which has had the widest influence.

Even those people who do not consider themselves fans know much from the show: phrases such as "Live Long and Prosper", "beam me up, Scotty", "highly illogical" and "the Prime Directive" have made their way into the lexicon, and a person would have to have lived in a cave for more than thirty years to not recognize images such as Mr. Spock's splay-fingered hand gesture and the distinctive shape of the USS Enterprise.

It's not surprising that no less than ten different decks of playing cards have been created based on the various series' images. The one shown here in the gallery is arguably the best of the lot.

With distinctive, futuristic suit-signs, aces depicting ships from the various alien races, and characters from the series faithfully reproduced in beautiful color on double-ended court cards, the deck is quite handsome.

Produced by CIC Video in Australia in 1996 (and again in Germany in 1998), the deck was originally distributed as a promotional item in conjunction with the release of videos of the original series.

I have read both that:

• Individual videos contained certain cards, and only by purchasing all videos were you able to complete the deck, and
• A boxed set containing the entire series of videos also came with a complete deck.

Either way, there don't seem to be a lot of the complete decks floating around.

Where to Find It

Of all of the Star Trek playing card decks, this one is probably the hardest to locate (for reasons explained above).

Your best bet to locate it would be to keep an eye on internet auction sites.

The Cards on Display

• The Queen of Hearts - Orion Slave Woman (played by Susan Oliver). Although originally appearing in the episode "The Cage", this character is best remembered as one of the most striking images from the series' closing credits. A possibly apocryphal story: Filmed makeup tests for the character kept returning from the lab with the green not showing at all. After a few tries, it was eventually discovered that the people in the film lab didn't realize the woman was supposed to be green, and were doing their best to remove the green tint in the development process!
• The Jack of Clubs - Captain Koloth (played by William Campbell). Klingon officer featured in the episode "The Trouble With Tribbles".
• The Ace of Diamonds - Romulan Bird-of-Prey. Equipped with a cloaking device, this craft was first seen in the episode "Balance of Terror".
• The King of Spades - Captain James T. Kirk (played by William Shatner). A capable captain with a woman on every planet! Say what you will about Shatner's acting style - his Kirk was unquestionably the heart behind the original series.
• The Joker - A Tribble. These cute, cuddly, and prodigiously reproductive creatures were first seen in the episode "The Trouble With Tribbles".
• The Card back - The USS Enterprise leaving orbit, with a Klingon Battle Cruiser close behind.

==========[ HalloweenPaperArt ]==========

The Deck

BOO!!

Here's one just for fun. A Halloween present to the Gallery from my wife, it's a deck meant to be given out as a favor at children's Halloween parties.

Printed on thin, uncoated stock, with square corners, this deck by Creative Expressions Group, Inc. is physically the kind of deck our forefathers would have printed - if our forefathers had been vampires, that is.

It doesn't look like it would hold up for very many hands of Old Maid, but, with its scary courts (which unfortunately repeat), and suits of jack o'lanterns, tombstones, spiders and bats, it's a fun little addition to the Gallery.

Where to Find the Deck

Check at party supply stores (and, in season, Halloween costume stores). The deck references a web site: http://www.ceg4party.com, but I find no mention of the deck on the site.

The Cards on Display

• The Queen of Bats - A Halloween Witch, in a rather cheerful mood.
• The King of Tombstones - A shy-looking Frankenstein's Monster.
• The Ace of Jack O'Lanterns - A wacky Jack O'Lantern
• The Jack of Spiders - Count Dracula (is his head shaped like a candy corn, or is it just my sweet tooth acting up?).
• The Joker - The Mummy
• The Card back - A collage of Halloween imagery, both scary and sugary.

==========[ TheMilitaryFortuneTellers ]==========

Manufactured by H. V Loring of Chicago, Illinois at or near the end of World War I (~1918), this deck is unusual on many counts, having:

• 56 cards (1-10, JNSA x 4 suits),
• Military courts (Jack/Sailor, Nurse, Soldier and Ace/Aviator,
• Non-standard suits (Hearts, Doves, Stars and Bells)
• Four groups of two-or-three-word "fortune vocabularies" around the four edges of each card face (see examples below).

[/list][/list]
The deck comes with a card-sized piece of paper with directions on how to lay the cards out and use the resulting "vocabulary words" to tell someone's fortune.

Although not technically a deck of playing cards, it could conceivably be used as one, and is listed in many playing card-collecting reference guides , such as The Hochman Encyclopedia of American Playing Cards.

The cards are not coated, and the courts repeat.

The Cards on Display

• The Jack/Sailor of Hearts - "Sailor or traveler", "Social lion or free lance", "Indulgent or good fellow", "Good or true".
• The Nurse of Doves - "Energetic or neat", "Demure or susceptible", "Lovable or noble", "Chic or clever".
• The Soldier of Stars - "Changeable or quick-tempered", "Successful or Selfconscious", "Rich or idle", "Economical or resolute".
• The Ace/Aviator of Bells - "Dangerous, surly or rude", "Daring or enduring", "Jealous or faithless", "Handsome or elusive".
  
  ==========[ DisneysCaliforniaAdventure ]==========[/SIZE
  [/URL]

[Mike Ratledge]

Amazing decks, Robert! Loving the Star Trek - right down my alley!

[RSLancastr]

Amazing decks, Robert!

Thanks, Mike! And they are just a handful of the eighty or so decks out of only the third of thirty BCW boxes of decks containing my collection!

Loving the Stat Trek - right down my alley!

There's many Trek decks which are nearly always on eBay, but I don't recall ever seeing this one there, other than the time I got it there, around 1997 or so...

And, "Stat Trek" is right down your alley? Reminds me of a hilarious t-shirt I saw recently: It reads "#1 STAR WARS FAN" - right above a picture of the USS Enterprise!

Thanks for the post, though!

[Mike Ratledge]

Fixed that. I'm working until midnight and home about 1, so the early morning eyes don't catch things that spell check don't flag. Stat and star are too close on the keyboard and both pass that simple minded check.

[RSLancastr]

Yeah, I use a built-in spellchecker which underlines in red any non-dictionary words I type into my browser, or else my posts would be nearly unreadable! (luckily, I got a new keyboard not long before I joined UC - My previous one was a cheapo, roll-out one I'd bought on eBay, which started malfunctioning a couple of months after I got it, adding random characters in nearly every other word I typed! I don't touch-type, so my eyes aren't on the characters as they appear on the screen, so I rarely see typos until after I've clicked Submit/Post/whatever. I'm just glad that UC has a pretty lenient "grace period" for Editing posts...

[RSLancastr]

More "from the vault":

==========[ ColorsOfTheFourSeasons ]==========


The following quotes are from the 16 Jun 2001 "Exhibit" of the deck on my old "The Bob Lancaster Gallery of Unusual Playing Cards" (BLGUPC) web site:

The Deck
NoMonet Full Court Press's Colors of the Four Seasons Playing Card Art Deck is the latest entry into the field of "Artists' decks", those decks which are each a collaboration of many artists, which have proliferated in recent years.

While an interesting idea, most of these decks have suffered from a lack of cohesion, with no underlying theme or style to tie the images together as a whole.

NoMonet has done a good job of avoiding this pitfall. The deck has an overall theme, with each suit representing one of the four seasons. While having a theme helps to hold such a deck together, NoMonet goes one better: each suit/season was assigned a color (see below), with each artist making sure that the palette he or she used for a card emphasized the color for that card's "season" (thus the name of the deck).


Suit / Color / Season

Hearts / Yellow / Autumn
Clubs / Red / Summer
Diamonds / Blue / Winter
Spades / Green / Spring

Another interesting choice is a black and white checkered pattern used as a border on all cards. While this initially struck me as odd, it eventually grew on me. It is a bold choice, and definitely gives the deck a look unlike any other I have seen. This, along with unusual, stylized indices which reflect the color of each suit, contribute to the overall cohesiveness of the deck.

Another pet peeve of mine about artists' decks is the tendency of many artists to produce images which do not seem to have been designed for a deck of cards at all. Quite often in these decks, you will see cards where there is no reference to card iconography at all, or which look as though the artist took some unsold painting out of his or her closet and stuck a few suit-signs on it. Not so with this deck. While there are one or two cards here which come close to fitting that description, the vast majority of the cards were obviously designed specifically as cards, which adds tremendously to my enjoyment of the deck.

While not strictly a transformational deck, most of the cards are "pseudo-transformational", with the correct number of pips (suit signs) on the card, just not necessarily in the traditional place and/or orientation.

All of this adds up to a colorful, highly-unusual deck which deserves a place in the collection of any collector of modern decks.

Where to Find it

No problem there! The deck is currently available at NoMonet's web site, on the Colors of the Four Seasons page:

http://www.nomonet.net

The Cards on Display


As with most multi-artist decks, you will find cards in this deck which you will love, cards which aren't exactly your "cup of tea", and a whole spectrum in between! I have chosen some of my personal favorites to show here...

Note: The quotes below are taken from the publisher's website.

• The Seven of Hearts - By artist Susan Renee Tomb: "I had no advance plan for this card so, letting inspiration guide me, I poured through a favorite nature photography book. When I saw the picture of the Monarch Butterfly I was very drawn to it, both for its colors (right for Fall) and the patterns in the wings. I knew that I wanted to do something creative with integrating the hearts into the image, and these wing designs provided a wonderful canvas. I had to significantly alter the original pattern to correctly create seven hearts, but was careful to retain the basic natural layout of the wing pattern."
• The Six of Clubs - By artist Gabrielle Gern: "I think the club shape must go back to gothic times. In those days it was often used in decorative designs. I wanted to put the clubs back into their original environment and found pictures of gothic architecture in Grundrif der Kunstgeschichte (Basis of Art History) by Dr. Wilhelm Lubke, printed in 1871. I photocopied the illustrations and painted them with watercolors. The club shapes were indeed present, but I chose to enlarge them to make them more visible and I had to add some to get six."
• The Eight of Diamonds - By artist Julie Hagan Bloch: "Doing some sketches in the doctor’s waiting room... For diamonds, light shining through windows onto the floor making diamond shapes... variations on these, one with a bat hanging on the wall in the shadows. I like bats better, so I do some sketches of bats at rest, concealed within their wings. I believe I’ll go with the bats."
• The Seven of Spades - By artist Keely Barham: "I wanted to try my hand at a transformational type of card for this one. Also I have had a life-long affinity for the frog species, so I started drawing frogs in the shape of spades and this is what I came up with. I used pens and watercolors."
• The Joker - By artist Mark Jetton: "The joker was difficult only because there were fewer restrictions, as it didn't have to fit into a suit or season. It just sort of evolved from several sketches and would probably still be evolving had there not been a deadline! As with the others, it was done mainly with colored pencils."
• The Card back - A collage of suit-signs and images of landscapes from the four seasons.

==========[ CampbellsChunkySoup ]==========

Sometimes I buy a deck without having seen any of its cards - only the box.

If the cards inside are non-standard, some of the cards are usually shown on the box.

Usually, but not always.

Buying such a deck - in hopes that it has custom courts - is a crapshoot for me, but, once in a great while, it pays off.

This advertising deck for Campbell's Chunky Soup was one such time. Both the front and back of the box show nothing but the words "Campbell's CHUNKY SOUP" and four suit-signs, with a scrollwork border. But I recalled seeing an advertising deck for some sort of Campbell's Soup, and its courts were portrayed by the brand's mascots, the "Campbell's Kids", so I bought this one in hopes that it had those courts, and it DID! (I can't tell you how many dozens of advertising decks I have bought this way through the years , hoping to find the brand's mascot(s) on their courts, only to find that they had standard courts...

==========[ Garfield_Crooked ]==========

I bought this one because Garfield is wearing a crown on the front of the box, so I hoped that meant that the deck had non-standard/custom courts.

But NOTHING on the box prepared me for just HOW non-standard just about EVERYTHING in this deck is:

• The shape of the cards - it is one of those zigzaggy, "crooked" decks. I have several "crooked" decks in my collection, but this is the only one which did not indicate its shape on the front of the box.
• The suits, which are the heads of four characters from the Garfield strip:
  • Garfield
  • Odie, Garfield's owner's dog
  • Nermal, Garfield's owner's kitten
  • Arlene, Garfield's girlfriend
• Placement of pips - Possibly due to the shape of the cards, the pips on many of the "number cards" (2-10) are not placed nor oriented as they are in a standard deck.

[/list]

Because of the above, I would think that the deck would be exceedingly difficult to actually use in game play.

All in all, not a deck that I would recommend to either a card player nor a card collector. I include it here mainly as an oddity.

[RSLancastr]

Here are some Dondorf decks "from the vault":

For those not familiar with the term:

"Dondorf decks" are those decks manufactured by Playing Card manufacture: B. Dondorf (1833-1933), Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

In their hundred years in business, Dondorf created dozens of deck designs, many printed using labor-intensive lithographic techniques which required lifting and inkinga separate, heavy lithograph stone for printing each individual color used in the deck's design.

Here are a few from my collection:

(No descriptions, sorry. I own a reference book with images from, and text about, every one of Dondorf's deck designs.

Unfortunately, the book 1) is in a storage box out in our garage, and 2) is in German).

One of my "dream projects" is to create and make available a web-based English translation of that book, including all of its card images, with hyperlinks added to all of the images, and to mentions of decks within the text, leading back to the page within the book where that deck is described.

It will be a lengthy and complicated project, so don't expect it to happen any time soon.

Now, to the decks:

==========[ Dondorf_No025_Kinder-Spielkarten ]==========


==========[ Dondorf_No150_Whist ]==========


==========[ Dondorf_No158_Whist ]==========


==========[ Dondorf_No163_Patience-Karten ]==========


==========[ Dondorf_No190_Whist-Karten ]==========

[RSLancastr]

The images in this post did not work earlier, so here's the post again:

==========[ Umbra_Joker ]==========

About the Deck
Published by Umbra (a maker and seller of various household products, see:
http://www.umbra.com) ~2001, this is another fairly unusual deck on several counts:

• The box is made of a thin metal with a flip-top lid, reminding me of similarly-made boxes in which Band-Aids were sold when I was a child (do they ever sell them that way now? I haven't seen them sold in anything but paperboard tucks in thirty years or more...).
  Umbra makes and sells other decks in various unusually-shaped containers (usually made of Tupperware-like plastic), often with the cards being made in the same shape as the case.
  
  See this example, of Umbra's "Meow" deck:
  
  CLICK TO VIEW LISTING
• The courts are merely graphic representations of crowns, with the card's rank ("JACK", "QUEEN", "KING") spelled out above and beneath. The courts repeat, with the only difference being the color of the crown and rank matching the color of the suit (hearts and diamonds red, clubs and spades black).
• The name. I have no idea why Umbra named this deck "Joker".

Where to Find it

Umbra's playing card decks, like many of their other products, are often found with other "impulse purchase" items, near the cash registers in stores which sell a lot of Home furnishings (I purchased mine in a "Bed, Bath & Beyond" store in 2002.

==========[ CamelCigarettes_PoolPlayer ]==========

About the Deck

I bought this one after seeing some of its court cards displayed in a catalog of Camel Cigarettes merchandise.

I am not sure who the publisher is, nor when it was published, but it was some time beteen 1997-2001.

The deck's courts, joker, aces and even the card back are populated by a variety of characters you might find in a pool hall - as long as it has a stage (and everyone there happens to be a camel).

The Cards on Display

• The Queen of Hearts - A lovely singer with the band.
• The King of Clubs - One of the musicians with the band (you can just see the end of his "harp" (harmonica) sticking out of his coat pocket. I wonder what brand of cigarette he is smoking?
• The Jack of Diamonds - The band's drummer.
• The Ace of Spades - The lead guitarist.
• The Joker - A cigarette girl (guy? It's so hard to tell with camels...), handing out the advertiser's product.
• The Card back - Joe camel himself, shooting pool.
• The Additional Card - Instructions on how to return the deck for a refund if you are dissatisfied with it.
• The Box - I had no box with this deck - only a celophane wrapper.

Unfortunately, the courts (and Aces) repeat in the deck.

==========[ AIGAPlayingCards ]==========

About the Deck
According to the text on the deck's joker, this deck was commissioned and financed by the San Francisco chapter of the A.I.G.A.

What is the A.I.G.A? according to "About" page on their web site (http://www.aiga.org/About/):

Founded in 1914 as the American Institute of Graphic Arts, AIGA remains the oldest and largest professional membership organization for design and is now known simply as “AIGA, the professional association for design.”

The deck is indeed professionally designed, with its courts and Jokers populated by various stereotypical denizens of San Francisco.

The Cards on Display

• The Queen of Hearts - A "hippy chick", playing a guitar and smoking a joint. Parked in the distance behind her is what looks like a VW Bus, with a large marijuana leaf emblazoned on the cover of its spare tire.
• The King of Clubs - A Surfer Dude - there are two stickers on the surfboard he is carrying: One has the word "GNARLY" beneath a gold-colored crown (he IS a king, after all). The other has a Spade pip inside a red circle with a red slash through it (perhaps he has something against the court of the Spade suit?). The weapons often held up by a deck's Kings are cleverly echoed by a Seagull perched atop his surfboard, and a fish (perhaps a very small shark) hanging by its teeth from his wetsuit.
• The Jack of Diamonds - A businessman, with a gold watch (probably a Rolex) diamond (of course!) cufflinks, a briefcase overflowing with financial papers, and an issue of "RED HALIBUT" Magazine. He is being handed an IPO (Initial Public Offering) notice which, beneath its "IPO" heading, is filled with the pseudo-Latin nonsense which designers use to substitute for as-yet-unwritten text within a mocked-up document.
• The Ace of Spades - Although it looks blank here (other than the indices), there is actually a subtlely-colored (so subtle that it is difficult to see in person, let alone on this scan) large Spade pip, made from fancy scrollwork, centered in the card.
• The Joker - One of three different jokers in the deck (all of which sport simple, uncolored pen-and-ink drawings of humorous characters often found in San Francisco (this one an underdressed - and freezing cold because of it - tourist type.
• The Card back - Another subtly-colored pattern, this one an extremely complex image of a tree, filled to brimming with little birds and other wildlife.
• The Additional Card - No additional cards came with the deck.
• The Box - .

An extremely detailed engraved pattern, with text which says:

ESTABLISHED 1914
AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF GRAPHIC ARTS
AIGA
PLAYING
CARDS
TOP QUALITY SPECIAL EDITION
SAN FRANCISCO CHAPTER
STANDARD SIZE PLAYING DECK
ONE 1 PACK
SAN FRANCISCO - CALIFORNIA

[RSLancastr]

=====[ PLAYING CARDS & MOVIES (& ME!) ]=====

Here are some stories I hope you might find interesting, about some (very minor) involvement I had with playing cards being used in three films.

This was back when my playing card-related web site ("The Bob Lancaster Gallery of Unusual Playing Cards") was still a going concern (1996-2008), and I was contacted there for help with the production of three films:

==========[ ARMAGEDDON (1998) ]==========

I received an email from a gentleman who said that he was currently obtaining props to be used in Bruce Willis' upcoming blockbuster film, Armageddon. He explained a bit about the film's plot and said that in one scene, the American astronauts meet a Soviet cosmonaut on board the Soviet space station.

The script called for the cosmonaut to be a little "stir crazy" from being alone on the ship for so long, and they wanted for him to have a deck of playing cards that he would use to play solitaire and do magic tricks. The director wanted the deck the cosmonaut used to be recognizable to an American audience as playing cards, but to be...different, somehow. Were there such a thing as Russian playing cards? And, if there were, did I have a deck of them that I could lend to the production company to use in the film?

I assured him that there were indeed Russian playing cards, and I had a Russian deck that I would be more than happy to loan to the film, in return for me and my web site receiving a "thanks" in the closing credits. He said that would be no problem, and we set up a meeting where I could hand over the deck.

My first impulse was for them to use my Black Palekhs. I thought they would look pretty striking on film. But they were one of my favorite decks, and I wasn't sure how difficult they would be to replace if something happened to them. Also, they were not coated, so I was unsure how well they would work when the actor playing the cosmonaut used them to do magic tricks.

After giving it some thought, I decided that I would purchase a modern, Fournier double-deck set which was reprints of an older Russian deck:

CLICK TO VIEW LISTING

I figured they would be perfect. They looked Russian, were coated, and I could easily replace them if anything were to happen to them. I knew of a store which sold them for $15, so I went there, bought one, and emailed the prop guy that I was ready for our meeting. I included scans of a few cards from the deck, and he replied that he had shown the scans to the film's director, who thought that they looked perfect.

I got the deck to the prop guy, who loved them, and told me that the "thanks" mentioning me and my web site was set to be in the film's credits.

When the film was released, there was no scene with the cosmonaut using a deck of cards, and there was no thanks to me in the credits.

I never found out what happened. Maybe the scene was cut from the script, or ended up on the cutting room floor (I would think that a scene depicting card-handling in zero gravity might have created some special-effects challenges they hadn't anticipated).

==========[ DELIVERING MILO (2001) ]==========

I received an email from ANOTHER prop guy, saying that he was putting together props for a film titled Delivering Milo.

He explained: Some of the film took place in a heavenly "pre-life" place where young children waited their turn to be born.

One child (Milo) decides that he doesn't want to be born, and refuses. Since all children must be born in the right order, all births on Earth ceased while the people in charge of the "pre-life" try to convince Milo to be born.

One of the film's conceits was that each of the children who were waiting their turn to be born had a special toy which somehow related to their future life on Earth (a child whose toy was a car might become a racecar driver or an auto mechanic in his or her life - that sort of thing).

The "special toy" of Milo - the film's central character - was a deck of playing cards, which was prominantly featured in a couple of scenes.

In one scene, the angel who is assigned the task of convincing milo to be born (played in the film by actor Albert Finney) did some fancy card moves using Milo's deck of cards, and this would be shown in close-up detail.

The director wanted the deck of cards to look special in some way, but was not sure just what was out there, so the prop guy contacted me for advice. Did I know of a deck that might fit the bill? If so, did I know where the deck could be obtained?

After giving it some thought, I decided that the Dondorf "Centennial" deck would be perfect.

The deck was published in 1933 to commemorate Dondorf's 100th year (1833-1933), and Dondorf had pulled out all the stops to make the deck as special as possible.

Dondorf was well-known for printing beautiful decks using chromolithography - a highly labor-intensive process which required the use of a different heavy lithograph stone for each color of ink used in a deck's design.

The more colors used, the more detailed and beautiful the design could be, but the more expensive the setup and printing process would be.

The "Centennial" deck's design required FAR more colors than Dondorf had ever used in a deck before (I seem to recall that it was thirteen or fourteen colors, but I'm not certain about that.

Dondorf went out of business after the deck was released, and there are (unconfirmed) rumors that the incredible expense of printing the "Centennial" deck may have played a part in that.

Regardless, the resulting deck is one which many collectors, myself included, consider to be the most beautful deck of cards ever printed - Perfect for a "heavenly" deck of cards, I thought.

Here is a reproduction of the Dondorf Centennial by Altenberg-Stralsunder:

CLICK TO VIEW LISTING

I had no copy of the original (1933) deck, as they were rare and quite expensive. But I DID have a reproduction edition.

Unfortunately, the repro I had of it was not very well coated, and the deck used in the film would need to be HIGHLY usable in fancy card moves, for the close-up scene where Finney's "angel" character performed fancy shuffles and such with it.

Luckily, someone (either Fournier or Piatnik, I forget which) had a recently-printed double-deck repro of the Centennial deck, and I obtained one.

A meeting with the prop guy was scheduled, for me to show him what I had come up with for the film.

I brought the new Centennial repro and a few other possibilities from my collection from which he could select.

When I showed him what I had brought, he picked the Centennial repro, hands-down.

He said that the magician who would be actually performing the fancy card moves for Finney's character wanted to make sure that the deck I was supplying was appropriately "handlable". Would I be able to meet with the magician so that he could try out the deck? The magician was scheuled to perform soon at L.A.'s Magic Castle, and I agreed to take the deck there for him to try it out (I was living in L.A. County at the time).
That evening at the Castle was interesting. The magician (whose name I don't recall) approved the deck. A fun side note: while he was "testing" the deck, Carl Ballantine walked up to us and asked what we were doing.

Ballantine was a well-known actor and comedy magician, but was probably best-known to people of my generation for his role as Lester Gruber on the old "McHale's Nany" television show. It was nice to meet the man. I also sat two seats away from Robert Picardo, the actor who was currently playing The Doctor on "Star Trek: Voyager".

The film was made and released, but I didn't see it until I rented it on DVD years later. It's an odd film, but the Centennial deck was indeed featured in close-up in one or two scenes.

==========[ THE ADVENTURES OF PLUTO NASH (2002) ]==========

I received an email from yet ANOTHER prop master / set designer, who wanted my thoughts on what playing cards might be like in the future. He was working on the upcoming Eddie Murphy film The Adventures of Pluto Nash, which was set in a casino/nightclub on the moon. I wrote up some ideas and sent them back to him.

I never saw the film (I heard it was terrible), so I don't know whether or not any of my ideas were incorporated into it.

==========[ fin ]==========

I was also contacted a couple of times by people who were producing plays which had scenes where some old type of cardgame was played, and they wanted my advice on where they could buy a prop deck of cards which would be in keeping with the period in which the play took place. One of them later snail-mailed me a copy of the play's program, in which I was thanked, and the URL of my web site was given. Nice!

That's it! Nothing too exciting, but I thought some of you might find it fun and interesting.

[th4mo]

These are great stories, Robert!

Thanks for sharing!

[RSLancastr]

You're quite welcome, th4!

[RSLancastr]

Another one "from the vault":

==========[ EvilForces_2 ]==========
==========[ (Evil Forces in East Slavonic Mythology) ]==========

Quotes below are from the deck's 31 Jan 2003 display on my old BLGUPC ("The Bob Lancaster Gallery of Unusual Playing Cards") web site.

Here's a "Wayback machine" (http://www.archive.org" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) archive of that exhibit, with some images missing, can be viewed here: http://web.archive.org/web/200410310032 ... s/deck.htm

About the Deck

There have been many non-standard decks published recently by former Soviet Union countries. This one is my favorite by far.

I received the deck as a present from my brother Jim (thanks Jim!) when he returned from a recent trip to Russia. I was immediately taken with the deck, for it was unusual in a number of ways:

• the size: a nicely oversized 3" x 4.5" or so, making the images on the cards nice and large, with lots of room for detail.
• the color: the predominantly beige color of the cards gives them a look at once warm and ancient.
• the quality: the thickness of the cardstock was a very pleasant surprise, as many decks recently coming out of the former Soviet Union have had a thin, cheap feel to them. This one most definitely does not.
• the courts: a veritable rogue's gallery of unsavory characters.

I wanted very much to display the deck here in the gallery, but my inability to read the Cyrillic text on the courts, title card or box prevented me from putting together the exhibit I felt the deck deserved. The court cards had what I assumed were the names of the characters, but there was only one I recognized: Baba Yaga, the wicked witch who figures prominantly in many Russian folk tales. Beyond that, I was stuck.

Months later, I happened to receive an email from a young lady named Mara, a fellow playing-card collector in the Ukraine. After some brief correspondence, she happily volunteered to translate the text for me! A big "thanks" to Mara for all her help, and for making this deck all the more enjoyable to me!

As I had assumed from Baba Yaga's presence, the deck features bad guys from old Slavonic folk-tales (I have read that they cannot properly be called "fairy tales", as they have no fairies...).

The deck's title card translates as:

"Playing cards
Evil Forces
in East Slavonic
Mythology
Painter
Alexey Orleansky"

Courts for each suit seem to feature characters which are encountered in a specific type of area: Club courts are water-based creatures, whether found in rivers, wells, lakes, ponds or the bath. Diamond courts are spirits of the home and farm. Spades and Hearts both feature characters you might meet unawares on the road or in the woods. Seems as though no place was safe...

Where to Find it

The Cards on Display
All quotes below are directly from Mara. Her descriptions were so charming, and her fondness for the characters so contagious, I felt I could do no better.

Heart - The Queen of Hearts

---

"Baba Yaga (Baba - old woman, Yaga used to be her name, but in aggregate means: an old witch). She lives in the depths of the forest in IZBUSHKA (a hut) on chicken legs (whenever someone approaches the hut's front door, the chicken legs turn the hut to prevent entry! -BL). One of her legs is without flesh, just naked bones. She eats people (especially kids), and she flies in STUPA (mortar - something like big tun). Mainly she is an enemy, but sometimes she may help you with good advice - for instance how to kill Koschei (See Spade King -BL), or where to find his death."
Club - The Jack of Clubs

---

"Bannik (baths-spirit). Baths-spirit lives in banya, he scares people there. Sometimes he is invisible, sometimes like an old naked man, dirty and covered with besom leaves."

Diamond - The Ace of Diamonds

---

Each ace in the deck depicts a location where one or more of that suit's court characters might be encountered. The diamond court characters are normally found in the home and farm, so a mill is on the ace. -BL)
Spade - King of Spades

---

"Kaschei or Koschei (the deathless) - An evil magician, whose death is hidden in the several enclosed-in-each-other magic animals and subjects. So, his death is on the tip of the needle, the needle is hidden in the hare, the hare is inside the duck, the duck is in the casket, the casket is hanging on the big oak.. And if you want to kill him you must break the needle!"
Joker - The joker -

---

A faun-like demon, shown sitting on a tree stump, studying the cards in his hand.
Back - The card back

---

A reversible design in which two bats are shown within fancy scrollwork.
Extra: -

---

(The deck's Title Card, translated above -BL)
Box - The front of the box

---

(Not translated, sorry. -BL)

[Mike Ratledge]

So, the where to find it is 'best guess' on this last one? I'm assuming it might come up once in a while on eBay?

[RSLancastr]

So, the where to find it is 'best guess' on this last one? I'm assuming it might come up once in a while on eBay?

I don't recall ever seeing it there, but it's worth a shot. Search under the artist's name (Orleansky).

ETA: Here it is!!

CLICK TO VIEW LISTING

It's a different box (the seller tells me that it sold in a variety of boxes), but that's the deck!

$50 is a bit steep, but it's a great deck!

[Mike Ratledge]

I saw that, but for $50, I had to pass. That's a bit pricey!

[RSLancastr]

I saw that, but for $50, I had to pass. That's a bit pricey!

Agreed, but I thought that you might have bit the bullet, because the winning bidder was "m***e", so I thought perhaps you are on eBay as "mikee"!

[Mike Ratledge]

I saw that, but for $50, I had to pass. That's a bit pricey!

Agreed, but I thought that you might have bit the bullet, because the winning bidder was "m***e", so I thought perhaps you are on eBay as "mikee"!

Even my eBay name works: mike_ratledge - but no, not me.

[RSLancastr]

Even my eBay name works: mike_ratledge - but no, not me.

Oh, so the "***" in the masked eBay user name "m***e" can mask any number of characters?

ETA:

Four new decks to share with you all today...

First: My brother Jim and his wife Rachel are excellent photographers, and travel the world taking incredible photographs.

They recently returned from a trip which included visits to Africa and Machu Picchu in Peru.

This past weekend, Jim, who lives in San Diego, California, came up here to Salem, Oregon, to spend some time with my wife Susan and me.

At some point during a conversation, I mentioned to him that I had recently stumbled upon the "Evil Forces in Eastern Slavonic Mythology" deck which he had purchased for me years ago during one of his trips to Russia.

Jim jumped up and said "Oh, that reminds me - I have something for you!" before dashing out the door to his car, returning with a small statue of a Llama for Susan, and three decks of playing cards for me!

Handing them to me, he said something like "These probably aren't the kind you like, with the special face cards, but I thought you might like them anyway..."

I told him that there are probably a couple of dozen decks in my collection which various friends and relatives purchased for me while on vacations and such, and that, although they almost never had "special face cards" (custom courts), they all still have a place in my collection, and in my heart, That someone would see a deck of cards, think of me, purchase it, and bring it back to me from some far-off place, meant a lot to me, no matter what kind of deck it was.

So here, without further ado, are three decks Jim brought back for me from Peru:

==========[ IncaDinasty ]==========

About the Deck
A souvenir deck from Peru, with a photograph of a different Incan artifact on each card, this deck is an archeologist's dream.

==========[ MachuPicchuWonderOfTheWorld ]==========

About the Deck
Another souvenir deck from publishers INCASPERU. This one is of Machu Picchu, a very famous site in Peru. The deck has a different photograph of the site on every card, along with a one-line description.

==========[ RainforestExpeditions ]==========

About the Deck
Published by Rainforest Expeditions (http://www.perunature.com), each card in this deck shows either a photograph or drawing of an animal, bird or insect found in the rainforests of Peru.

The Hearts suit has images of birds.
Clubs: mammals,
Diamonds: Butterflies, and
Spades: More birds.

So a nice and unusual little haul from my world-traveling brother.

Next is an unusual, Afrocentric advertising deck:

==========[ Budweiser_AlphaOne ]==========

About the Deck

This deck is unusual for an advertising deck, in that the sponsor's product is only shown on the card back. The images on the deck's custom courts and jokers have nothing to do with the product. They appear to have been used merely to make the deck appeal to African-Americans, in an attempt to get them to buy the sponsor's product (Budweiser Beer).

[Jock1971]

I`m Liking the JOCKers from the Inca dinesty set. Once again some nice decks ,Thanks for sharing.

[RSLancastr]

I`m Liking the JOCKers from the Inca dinesty set.

I can see how they would appeal to you!

Once again some nice decks ,Thanks for sharing.

You're very welcome - thanks for enjoying them!

[RSLancastr]

Okay, I just went back through all of my posts in this thread/topic and made all of the scan/grids "clickable" using the UCIMG tag, so they all should now be viewable in enlarged (though kinda fuzzy) versions.

[RSLancastr]

Here's another longish story from the time of my old, playing-card-themed web site:

Back in the late 1990s (I'd say "back at the turn of the century", but that would make me feel too old...), I got an email at my web site ("The Bob Lancaster Gallery of Unusual Playing Cards") from a man who lived around thirty miles from me in Southern California, wanting to know if I could evaluate a large collection of antique playing cards which he had inherited from his mother, who had collected them for decades.

I told him that I was by no means an expert evaluator, but that I would be more than happy to come and take a look, pointing out to him any decks I knew to be quite valuable.

He was fine with that, and gave me directions to his place, after which we set a date and time for this to all take place.

A week or so later, I drove to his place on the coast.

After introductions, he seated me at a table and went into another room to retrieve the collection.

When he returned, I was surprised to see he was carrying several old photo albums, which he placed on the table before me.

I took the one from the top of the stack, put it in my lap, opened it up, and became both excited and fairly queasy.

Excited because the very first deck displayed was a rare American deck from the 1800s, with lovely, non-standard (custom) courts.

Queasy because of the book they were in. I said they were "photo albums", and they were - but they were very old ones, more like what we nowadays would call a scrapbook.

The pages were all made of dark brown construction paper, and the cards had been mounted to the pages using old-fashioned "corner mounts", as were used in very old photo albums.

The cards were mounted face-up, with the courts from the deck on each left-hand page, and miscellaneous other cards mounted on the right-hand page.

The very first thing that horrified me about this: construction paper is not (I repeat, is NOT) acid-free, so the backs of every single card had been stained brown from years of bein pressed against those pages.

Worse, the cards almost never totally lined up with the cards on the opposing page, so there was a network of brown-stained lines where the construction paper on each side touched the faces of the cards on the other side.

Heartbroken by what I was seeing, I leafed through page after page holding cards from dozens of rare, antique,brown-stained and antique decks I would have hocked my children to have owned, had they been in good condition (the decks, not my children).

Were that not bad enough, I began to notice something else, and asked the man "where are the jokers and spade Aces?", as there were none in the book.

"She kept the jokers in another book, and the Aces of Spades in yet another book", he replied.

When I asked if I could see them, he told me that he had already sold those two books...

So there I was, holding a collection which would have, if complete and unstained, been easily worth tens of thousands of dollars, but which, stained and missing all jokers, spade aces AND boxes(!), was probably worth a thousand dollars, tops.

I was literally sick to my stomach.

When I told the man my offhand evaluation, he sighed and said "that's what the guy from England told me."

It turned out that he had also gotten an evaluation of the collection from my friend Brian Getz, a seller of antique cards who lived in England, but who was in Southern California at the time (he and his wife had stayed at my house for three nights earlier that week).

Brian later told me that even if the man had accepted his offer of a thousand dollars, Brian would probably not have made a profit, after all of the work he would have had to put into making the decks sellable.

MORAL: Be VERY CAREFUL how you store and/or display your cards.

It was an interesting little adventure, and I thought some of you might enjoy reading about it.

Another cautionary tale about a collection being evaluated:

This did not happen to me, but I was told about it by multiple people whom I trust and so believed.

A widow whose deceased husband had collected playing cards for many years called the collector's club to which he had belonged, asking if someone from the club could come out and evaluate her late husband's collection.

A couple of the club's members went to the woman's home and examined the collection.

After they left, the woman noticed that some of the decks they had examined were now missing cards which she knew had been there.

It turned out that the men had taken cards from some of the decks to replace cards which were missing in their[/copies of those decks (missing cards are quite common in antique decks).

I don't know what all happened, such as whether or not law enforcement became involved, but I believe that the men were kicked out of the club.

MORALS: Be VERY careful who you leave alone with your collection. And create a full, detailed inventory of your collection to be used by your spouse (or whomever) in the event of your death.

-RSL