Teheuti said:
A bunch of us saw and got to handle Kaplan's Roses&Lilies deck at the Chicago ITS conference—just after he got it on ebay. I remember it as being in remarkably good condition with little or no fading and very minor discoloration. I think that the darkness of the deck is probably the result of the coating put on the cards. I've noticed that the press-proofs of decks usually have much better color than the actual press run and was told that the varnish or coating darkens then and changes some colors more than others. Also, the Thoth deck is a good example of how the colors can vary even within the same edition of a deck.
Some of the PamA-crackle-back decks that I've seen are in as pristine a condition as if they were new.
That makes sense and I did think that was probably the reason. That the slightly darker colours were due to the lamination/coating. And it is actually only with some of the colours, not all of them indeed. Mostly the grey and the blue also has it a bit. Most of them are close to the original.
I also saw Kaplan's copy in Chicago and I remember it was in good condition, but it was quite some time ago so I wasn't sure anymore. And I have never been able to compare it with my own copy. For the record, both my Pam-A crackled back and Roses&Lilies are indeed, like you said, in pristine condition.
