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Card-Shark Inner circle Germany 1758 Posts |
OK folks,
I would love to share my newest creation with you. I was asked by a belgium magician - Tonny van Rhee - to produce the cards for a completely new handling of the Gypsy Curse of Peter Kane. He wanted something that REALLY looked 200 years old. And in the 18th or 19th century the playing cards completely looked different than they do now. I created the gaffed cards and here you can see the demo performance of Tonny here. When I showed these cards to other magicians including Juan Tamariz, Roberto Giobbi and Richard Sanders the reactions where always overwhelming so I decided to create a whole deck with these old looking playing cards. And this should be the perfect deck for magicians: - they are very subtle marked on the back so that you can easily find out which card is selected - the cards look really old and worn out but they are actually printed on first class linen structure playing card stock so every handling is possible, even a double-lift, palming and other nice sleights of hands - they have an old Tarot-size so that they are not familiar to usual Poker-sized cards. But they are still small enough so that you can palm a card - as old cards they should have no corner roundings, but I will give them small ones to improve the handling - every card looks different, the printings on the cards have scratches all over - I used old looking images (indeed they are based on a poker deck from early 1800) but the images are still familiar to all layman - all picture cards have the index printed on the upper left corner so that they will be seen easily when spreading the deck. - I would include Joker cards even if they were invented much later than 1800. So here is an image of the prototype, click on it to see a larger version: To improve the value of the deck I want to create additional gaffed cards. Here are some ideas I had and want to include when producing the deck (also click to enlarge): What I am also considering is the production of a special leather case that will secure the cards from bending and that should also look more than 100 years old. It should keep only a few cards (if you want to perform a packet trick like the Gypsy Curse) or the whole deck. But it should help you telling the story of a family jewel that was passed from generation to generation. Also an old looking woodcase will be available for parlour magic situations. I would like to include you in the creative process of this deck. Is there anything missing? Which trick cards should I create also? What would be helpful for using this deck? Let me hear what you are thinking! Every comment is welcome. Thank you Christian
Expert in playing card production for magicians.
The Person Who Says It cannot Be Done Should Not Interrupt The Person Doing It! Chinese Proverb |
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CardMaker Inner circle Ludwigsburg/GERMANY 1063 Posts |
Very nice! Hats of to you!!
I think you covered the most necessary range of "false cards" to add to a regular deck. What is the actual size of these cards?
CardMaker/Bernd Maucksch
Finest gaffed cards for magicians |
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Card-Shark Inner circle Germany 1758 Posts |
I can only say the measurement in mm: 60 mm x 110 mm (Bicycle cards are 63 x 88).
Expert in playing card production for magicians.
The Person Who Says It cannot Be Done Should Not Interrupt The Person Doing It! Chinese Proverb |
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CardMaker Inner circle Ludwigsburg/GERMANY 1063 Posts |
THX.
For all the other Café members: The cards are apprx. 2 1/3" x 4 1/3". (2.36" x 4.33")
CardMaker/Bernd Maucksch
Finest gaffed cards for magicians |
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Payne Inner circle Seattle 4571 Posts |
Being a Ren Faire performar I'd be more than interested in this deck. The only drawback I see is they are too big to fit in my card sword.
"America's Foremost Satirical Magician" -- Jeff McBride.
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Card-Shark Inner circle Germany 1758 Posts |
@Payne: this point goes to you. But perhaps I can produce your own deck of cards that would be a little bit smaller so that the card can fit in your sword.
I even can produce single Tarot cards looking old. I wanted to have these cards look as authentical old as possible, and in earlier days cards were longer than nowadays Bicycle cards.
Expert in playing card production for magicians.
The Person Who Says It cannot Be Done Should Not Interrupt The Person Doing It! Chinese Proverb |
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The Curator V.I.P. Beware Vampire, I have 3909 Posts |
I wrote 4 different routines based on Pact, my version of the Gypsy Curse. The latest is "Paradise Lost". I've also developped several routines to be played in Renaissance fairs situations and other bizarre settings.
Your cards look really interesting, I'd like to know more about them. |
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Cunningham Regular user Minnesota 159 Posts |
WOW! Card-Shark, those are beautiful, when will they be available?
Best, Cunningham |
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Bill Palmer Eternal Order Only Jonathan Townsend has more than 24312 Posts |
Here's a thought. If you are performing at a Renaissance Festival, and you want to use cards of this style, the paper should not look old. It should look reasonably new. Why? You are supposed to be creating the illusion that people are back in the 16th or 17th century. These cards would not have looked old back then. Neither would the leather case you keep them in, other than normal everyday wear.
Be careful when making leather cases, because the dye may come off on the cards. Line the case with felt or flannel to keep the cards away from the leather.
"The Swatter"
Founder of CODBAMMC My Chickasaw name is "Throws Money at Cups." www.cupsandballsmuseum.com |
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Card-Shark Inner circle Germany 1758 Posts |
I finished the creation of the "regular" deck. The same with the cards for Gypsy Curse (they will come with an old looking golden coin and the routine from Tonny van Rhee), and the other trick cards you could see. I am not sure if I really will do the Pip Matrix as it is too obvious that these are trick cards. So I still have 4 up to 6 cards where YOU ALL can decide or bring ideas what I should include.
And when these last trick cards are done I can start the print. All these cards get together on the same printing sheet so the gaffed cards can be perfectly mixed with the regular deck. The development of the optional leather case is still in progress, perhaps in the end it will something completely different as this is really in creation state. The wooden card box already exists, I can buy it here. I think a reasonable time scale will be in the beginning of the third quarter 2007. The prices are not fixed until now. I have to consider that the cards should not be too expensive but the price range will be somewhere of the prices of marked decks. I will produce them only in a smaller quantity and will sign every pack. The card quality is Bicycle stock quality with linen structure, it will be printed in Germany in a branch of the world´s biggest card manufactury. I did an inquiry at USPC and Fournier also, they would print these cards for me when ordering a quantity 10,000 decks+. And this is too much for this idea. The quality you will get is the same, only the finish will be a little bit different. But I am sure you will love the overall quality. I am also a magician and only want the best for myself. (PS: I even read in another post about the Vintage 1800 that there was one user satisfied with the quality of the cards when he could do 8 faros! Hey, these cards should give the impression of very old cards. And you cannot do a faro even with a five days used new Bicycle deck!!! Boy, he should think how he ruins the spectator´s impression.) @Bill: Thanks for the idea with the flannel or felt. I will follow this idea. And thank you for the good point about Renaissance Festival and that you should use new looking cards. It is the point how authentic you really want to be and what spectators think they should see when they visit a Ren Festival. I talked to a very good german magician who works on these fairs regularly and he would love to work with the deck. He even gave me the idea to sell this "regular deck" there to the spectators. The deck is not intended to be used solely at these fairs, in first place it should help in performing those high value effects like Gypsy Curse and other effects where a real old looking deck will be of high value. I know that I also included historical mistakes as I designed two way faces of the high cards. And in designing a Joker. And in designing a back with a white border so that you can do more effects with the deck without flashing. I also switched all court cards over where the pip was on the right side. My intention was to get the spectators in their own world as they know the colors spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs. And the cards look somehow familiar without any explanation. You can start right away. Think of a deck that you found between old books of magic, or that your grandgrandfather got from Houdini. This was the first purpose.
Expert in playing card production for magicians.
The Person Who Says It cannot Be Done Should Not Interrupt The Person Doing It! Chinese Proverb |
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AltonThrash Special user Meridian, MS 589 Posts |
Very nice indeed and something I would surely pick up. These would be perfect for a couple of ideas of mine.
Alton |
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Dr Spektor Eternal Order Carcanis 10781 Posts |
Ditto - these look perfect for an ancient cursed deck....
(I.e. this thing begs for a variety of haunted deck effects) Personally, if you can shim some that would be excellent Also, if you ever make a turn of the century Russian Deck that would be cool - in fact - what is the best way to contact you - you like PMs or e-mail? Just let me know - as I'd also like to discuss price!!! I do a routine ala the Queen of Spades of Pushkin... I use a Russian Deck but it looks way too "new"... Also, creating a card that is slightly wider than the rest is great for certain control techniques... All the best, Dr S
"They are lean and athirst!!!!"
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Card-Shark Inner circle Germany 1758 Posts |
Dr. Spektor: you can contact me best over my e-mail adress, but I try to avoid writing it down as I try to avoid spam robots to find my mail account. You can also send me an image of the russian card(s).
I am sure that when the decks are here that I will also produce gaffed decks like Strippers, Force decks and Svengalis. As I get the cards completely cut I can only trim them afterwards. But that way I can do nearly everything possible if you need a specially prepared deck. BTW, I am also considering a printing of an old looking medieval tarot deck in the same quality. In a few weeks I will know more as copyright issues have to be cleared.
Expert in playing card production for magicians.
The Person Who Says It cannot Be Done Should Not Interrupt The Person Doing It! Chinese Proverb |
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Jonathan Townsend Eternal Order Ossining, NY 27297 Posts |
As someone who is also exploring the Hofzinser material I'd request you make the cards Pickett (sp) sized though I would prefer credit/id card sized.
The designs are easy/view as is so no need for the larger size (which was not so prevalent)
...to all the coins I've dropped here
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fishwasher Inner circle B'ham uk 1231 Posts |
These cards are great!
One thing I personally would like is DF with both sides the same. please keep us updated on the Tarot deck.... I'm looking foward to these... Aidan |
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rowdymagi5 Inner circle Virginia 3616 Posts |
Excellent! I will be a customer for sure!
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honus Veteran user 354 Posts |
Those are just freakin' beautiful!!!!
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Roger Kelly Inner circle Kent, England 3332 Posts |
Put me in the queue - these are beautiful!!
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Thomas Wayne Inner circle Alaska 1977 Posts |
Quote:
On 2007-05-17 03:48, Bill Palmer wrote: I would argue that point. It's my thinking that a traveling charlatan (magician, hustler, or whatever) making his living with a deck of cards would probably have a fairly worn deck. Why? Because a deck of cards in the 16th or 17th century would probably be expensive, and generally reserved for the more wealthy citizens. So the deck that our vagabond is using would almost certainly be second-hand, and have a great deal of miles on it. Secondly, let's consider the ACTUAL tone of a typical Renaissance Festival. While the participants do often go to great lengths to remain accurate to the period, the audience NEVER does. If everything at a Ren Fair were perfect it would be more like a visit to a museum (boring) and less like entertainment. Successful Ren Fair performers know that tiny anachronisms and semi-subtle references to current affairs (spoken as if they existed in the period) create humor and entertainment for the specs. At typical example might be for a performer to reference "Sir George W. Bush, the lesser, of Dummyville". Because the mindset is less one of accuracy, and more one of impression, I think the aged, soiled deck is the right way to go. That’s my thinking on the subject. TW
MOST magicians: "Here's a quarter, it's gone, you're an idiot, it's back, you're a jerk, show's over." Jerry Seinfeld
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Jonathan Townsend Eternal Order Ossining, NY 27297 Posts |
Thomas, how about the size of the cards?
The images in the Hofzinser Genii issue were smaller than poker sized cards and also going smaller would make some sleights more comfortable.
...to all the coins I've dropped here
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