Imperfections that endear a deck to you

FLizarraga

I have long managed to resist the Aquarian, a deck that I find VERY dated --as in '60s-'70s Faux Deco movie poster, not always felicitous art.

However, a friend recently posted for trade a vintage copy with a pen scribble on the Moon card. And, I don't know, I HAD to have it. I also almost ruined the Devil card, and had to fix it with glue and some ingenuity.

Now I love everything about it: the somewhat rough feel of the trimmed edges, the well-loved cardstock, the very "datedness" of the art (is that a word?)

Has anything like this happened to you?
 

SwordOfTruth

My cat, who is also my familiar, has a longstanding habit of sticking her dirty great paw smack in the middle of certain cards and then applying the full weight of her body onto it. So that the card is now no longer flat. I often read on soft surfaces like my couch or a cushion, so that's how she can bend them. Hm....I don't know though if it endears to either the deck or the cat. But familiars are not seeking our approval.
 

Alta

Yes, I'll get a scan in a bit.

I very much wanted an older Thoth deck and when I got one I was very pleased. The deck was used, and I mean very used. The cards which were originally somewhat cardboard, were now almost soft from handling. But The Devil card! It appeared as if someone had taken against it in a fury. Multiple folds rough handling. I would love to know the story behind that one. And it really makes me like this deck.

ETA: my scanner just would not make a decent scan so I took a couple of photos. Still doesn't really show it but the crease marks are there.
 

Attachments

  • XV (563 x 750).jpg
    XV (563 x 750).jpg
    97.2 KB · Views: 189

FLizarraga

Alta said:
Yes, I'll get a scan in a bit.

I very much wanted an older Thoth deck and when I got one I was very pleased. The deck was used, and I mean very used. The cards which were originally somewhat cardboard, were now almost soft from handling. But The Devil card! It appeared as if someone had taken against it in a fury. Multiple folds rough handling. I would love to know the story behind that one. And it really makes me like this deck.

ETA: my scanner just would not make a decent scan so I took a couple of photos. Still doesn't really show it but the crease marks are there.
Click to expand...

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh!!!! Beautiful!

is it just the picture, or is the card a bit discolored by age?
 

Barleywine

My cherished 1971-vintage, large-format Thoth has a few dog-earred cards with clear packing tape over the creases, and rather frayed edges along with faded colors, but I would never part with it. It doesn't shuffle so well any more, but then it's large and never did (which is probably how it got its imperfections in the first place).
 

tealily

A number of my cards (mainly RWS but this morning, The Fountain) have slight dents in them where they've accidentally fallen to the floor and my computer chair has rolled over them.

It just shows that we've been together a long time :D
 

gregory

Not quite in the same class - but I am very fond of my Japanese deck which includes a Queeb of Wands.

I also have a very odd RWS with writing all over it - I will dig it out to scan another day.
 

Le Fanu

My bashed and battered and crumbling and unshuffleable RWS deck.

It came to me with corners missing, red wine spills, grubbiness and so overshuffled that the cards have a feintly discernible "hourglass" shape as if they were probably gripped slightly more around the middle over decades of handling.

Here are 3 cards but the whole deck is a work of art...

I absolutely ADORE it.
 

Attachments

  • P2152342.JPG
    P2152342.JPG
    182.8 KB · Views: 183

FLizarraga

Le Fanu said:
My bashed and battered and crumbling and unshuffleable RWS deck.

It came to me with corners missing, red wine spills, grubbiness and so overshuffled that the cards have a feintly discernible "hourglass" shape as if they were probably gripped slightly more around the middle over decades of handling.

Here are 3 cards but the whole deck is a work of art...

I absolutely ADORE it.
Click to expand...

Ahhhhh! That's the stuff.
 

stellar4

Crikey, Alta and Le Fanu- those are decks that have really seen life!

I've got a lovely vintage Romanian version of the RWS with the softest, most papery cardstock ever and odd cards with tattered corners and creases; I love it to bits (much more use and it may well fall to bits...!).

Its not an everyday deck but it does get pulled out sometimes and I just use it (gently!) to read for myself, and wonder which fortune tellers have held it and worked with it and shaped it in its long life. I'll never know, but I like to wonder at its history.
 
MARKSALOT...REMOVING from cards Combining Lenormand + Tarot on specific questions