My thoughts on the Vampire Tarot by Robert Place

I've just taken delivery of this deck and not really had a chance to have a good look through the deck, but here are my initial thoughts.

The first thing that struck me was the quality of the presentation box; very sturdy indeed. I opened the box and was greeted by a very nice, paperback companion book (227 pages). Lifting the book up revealed the shrink-wrapped deck. (No smaller box or bag to hold the deck, however). The cards were larger than I expected and measure about 3.5 x 5.25 inches. In common with my Wormweird tarot deck, they are very highly laminated indeed. The cards were all stuck together and had to be individually and carefully prised apart; it took just a few minutes and did not result in any damage to the cards (unlike my Wormweird deck, which suffered superficial damage to some cards). The cards do not have rounded corners and I have already pricked myself on the sharp corners, which I thought was quite apt, given the subject matter of the deck. I quite like sharp corners and will not be rounding mine off. The back design is even nicer in real life than it appears in scans.

First impressions are very good. As I said, I've not had a chance to sit down with the deck yet, but I'm looking forward to it.

Ooh.. getting me exited about mine. Wonder when it will arrive? And does Le Fanu on the court cards really look like me ? How good a likeness is it??

Just to say that - hurrah! - my Vampire Tarot was waiting for me when I arrived at work (I wonder if Mods are going to morph these posts into the already exisiting thread on the deck)...

I have to say Im very impressed. Pretty sturdy package; incredibly well produced, the box, the book etc. I have, however, never seen cards quite like these. They really do arrive as a brick and you have to go through them one by one and peel them off the brick. Some cards just wouldn't come off. Extraordinary. No damage to the cards though and - odd this - here is a glossiness which I actually like. After a look through the whole deck (sitting down to "peel" the deck apart) I have to say Im really impressed.

The book looks to be superb. I think Im going to have to make the mental leap to a "theme" deck which reworks certain RWS images. The cards are stunning though (and I feel no urge to round the corners). I particularly love the garlic suit, with the garlic flowers. The cards really are gorgeous, so rich and dark. This is one of those quality dark decks, not just trying to be spooky for the sake of it.

Im not particularly into vampires, I was more swayed by the fact that it is a Rob Place deck and, as a tarot theorist/ academic, I like his work. I just knew this was going to be a very substantial set...

I really feel I should reread Stoker now...

(Oh and Le Fanu is the Knight of Holy Water... I can see the resemblance. LOL

I think I may have to take a closer look at this deck.....I had a little squint at it when it was being discussed a while ago but the more I read the more I want to see....

Le Fanu said:

The cards really are gorgeous, so rich and dark. This is one of those quality dark decks, not just trying to be spooky for the sake of it.

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I agree. The printing quality is excellent and the cards are...well, rich and dark, like you said. I'm very impressed with not only the deck itself, but the whole package. With regards to separating the cards, I find it helps if you grasp the entire "brick" of cards and flex them slightly along their length and width. You can also flex them along the diagonals, if you want. This helps to loosen them so you can then separate them by removing a few cards at a time and "peeling" each card off. The only other deck I have seen with this level of lamination is the Wormweird tarot.

Glad to hear you like the Knight of Holy Water.

Bram Stoker's Dracula is one of my favourite books, so I'm looking forward to reading the companion book.

I really respect R. Place's work, and i actually am very into anything vampire, especially from the Romantic period, but i didn't even consider buying this deck at first.

Luckily i found out that Edgar Allan Poe was the Knight of Stakes(Wands) which aside from being my favorite author/poet of all time, the Knight of Wands has always been my significator card.

Needless to say, i took that as a sign. And love this deck. I still haven't done any readings, but i've looked through the cards from time to time and i actually like it when they kind of stick together the way they did fresh out of the box. it makes it feel like they really are "one deck" and i like to sit and study each card of a new deck one at a time. The action of carefully separating them i think just make me feel closer to them too.

I'm seriously thinking about this deck one day!

I've just noticed that the photo on the back of the box shows the cards without the borders. The backs in the photo have a much thinner black border and the faces do not have the thick, white border at all. How odd. Perhaps the publisher thought that showing the cards without the borders would make them appear more attractive to potential customers. If that is the case, then they should have just printed borderless cards. Does anyone have a borderless deck?

My deck has a substantial white border around the face of the cards; normally, I dislike thick, white borders (Robin Wood deck) but for some reason I don't mind them at all on this deck.

Glad you're pleased with it.

This one's still on my wishlist (sort of) Am mulling it over. I am a fan of Place art so will probably end up with it anyway but I'm just not sure about the theme. Just dug out Dracula am going to give that a read see if it helps

irisa

ETA: If/when I do get it sounds as though it will be a worthy candidate for my newly discovered trimming skills

Soothsayer said:

Does anyone have a borderless deck?

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I don't think there is one. Everyone makes mention of the huge borders.

Im really impressed with this deck. And what is really spooky is that everything I normally hate (uber-glossy cards, massive borders) this deck has to an extreme degree, but it just doesn't bother me one iota. I love everything about this deck and it makes me wonder whether our irritation at borders and lamination is just dissatisfaction at some other level which seizes on the superficial and thinks that the problem lies somewhere else entirely.

irisa said:

I am a fan of Place art so will probably end up with it anyway but I'm just not sure about the theme. Just dug out Dracula am going to give that a read see if it helps

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Im not into vampires at all, but somehow this deck has made me! As he explains in the book it isn't really about stakes and blood and coffins and all the rest (although these things appear in some of the cards), it is the more metaphorical side of the vampire myth; transformation, rebirth, sexuality, fantasizing, the imagination, unconscious fears, Jungian theories of the Shadow Self. The theme "vampire" is a vehicle for tarot just as alchemy was in the Alchemical, and the two themes are - as he points out - not far removed. It is a very clever take on vampirism seen through the lense of the Arcana, Fools journey and the suits, with convincing parallels drawn.

By the way, I love the eerie pictorial quality of the Minors, the stark symbols emerging from darkness. I think this deck is clever, classy and conceptually (from what Ive read in the book and sense from the cards) it hangs together extremely well.

And no, I really don't like vampires. I think the whole vampire thing is silly and a bit cringeworthy. But I love this deck.