Igor

Hello to you all,

It’s not really about a tarot deck I am creating, but I didn’t found a better place to post about this project.

Few months ago, I bought one of the first edition of the Paul Marteau with its red-brown box. Of course the box, dating around 1930 is a bit damaged. So I planed to create a new one just for the pleasure to have another one.

I didn’t do anything since I saw the box of the Marteau’s « Deck 21 » posted by littlebuddah: http://www.tarotforum.net/showthrea...1&page=10&pp=10

The new thing is that the box is not brown-red, but blue !
Here’s the direct link to the picture of the original Marteau’s box own by littlebuddah : http://www.tarotforum.net/attachmen...achmentid=38797

So I created a first « draft » of the box and put it on my website :
http://zeelay.free.fr/tarot/artisan...rteau-boite.php

At this time, only one part of the box is made, some parts are missing, but it’s just a question of time. The real problem I have is that I don’t know where to find the same blue-paper as the Deck 21.

Igor.

thinbuddha

Hi Igor-

Attached is a scan of the box with a red ruler overlay so you get an idea of the scale (metric).

The blue paper is very thin. It feels as if it has been treated with some sort of shellac. As you can tell, it has a texture treatment to make it appear as if it were a fabric. I believe that it is actually a very thin tissue paper that has been pasted over the cardboard. Paper this thin is sometimes referred to as "vellum", but don't confuse it with true vellum which is actually animal hide: this is paper, and not an animal produce. It is thin enough that on the edges if the box, it has worn through and you can see the red underneath.

The red parts you can see are some sort of construction paper that the blue is attached to. I believe that the blue and red material were manufactured together separately from the box. Good luck finding something similar. After all these years, it is doubtful that they are using the same manufacturing processes- but you should be able to find something close enough to make a convincing substitute.

By the way, the boxes on your site look great.

Attached Images

box_scan.jpg (240.1 KB, 30 views)

Debra

That might well be linen, no?

thinbuddha

I don't think so. There are no threads that I can see.

Debra

Yeah, I see it now. Old books sometimes have the same kind of cover material.

OnePotato

Paper with a textured surface like that is called "linen finish".
Traditionally, it's made by pressing the pulp with a woven sheet of cloth, instead of the usual sheet of pressed felt.
Instead of the overall velvety rough of the felt, it picks up the woven cloth texture.

People like to use linen finish for stationery sometimes, so if you want to find it, you might look into that.

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