6 Haunted Days
rosyelf said:6 Haunted Days, there is the Victoria Regina deck by Sarah Ovenall. It is definitely Victorian-using lots of Victorian engravings-and what I've seen online looks very good. I did have some qualms about GUNS being used as one of the suits ( in place of--Swords, was it ? I can't recall).
The Victoria Regiona is Out of Print but you can still get it secondhand from Amazon
Well yes that, but that's kinda a more commercial art, old advertisement collage. I love aspects of it, I got it in 2002 when it came out and it's since disappeared, nice , going to be expensive to replace. The guns too, major turn-off for me for the deck. They looked out of place and silly on many of the cards. Swords is a much beloved suit, so it was an irritant. The moon card is quite fetching. I never really read with it much. The mason jars not a huge hit with me either, lots of kitsch in that deck. There is the Vaudeville tarot, but that isn't available in printed form is it? Gorgeous images though.
The Victoria Regina is 188.00 on amazon!
Any others out there? Karen gave the impression the market was flooded with them, they're pretty sparse.
One thing I keep forgetting to mention about th BG, the lack of borders! I go on and on about everything and neglect to mention this, which is a gigantic thing. I love decks without borders, they look so right in your face, and layed out together in a spread, blend together like a ever-changing portrait. With the rich, deep colours and startling evocative imagery of the BG they are going to create a veritable tapestry of shadows and light. I can't wait to lay out different combinations in candlelight (and hurricane lamps, I mostly use those in place of electric, candles don't give out enough light ro do a lot of things, but laterns and hurricane lamps are great) and see the tableaux they weave together. Just imagine the silver shimmering, winking and eeriely aglow
I am anticipating the backs so much, MRP always has the most intricate swirling hypnotizing backs of any decks out there, considering the images on the front, I believe Alex is going to create quite the treat!
I was reading on this thread about the Gothic being about sadness as well as scary. Well yes! Bittersweet melancholy and a yearning gloominess and woe are really the main componets of the genre, scary...well more sublime horror than scary. A huge aspect is also the "picturesque" style of conveying the lanscape and nature. This of course is no where better displayed than in Mysteries of Udolpho. It doesn't get any better than Radcliffe's narration of the Pyrenees, Italian countryside and those small quaint villages on her long carriage ride. I love her description of the approach to the castle Udolpho....simply breathtaking.