Next Restoration?

[thinbuddha]

I've finished the restoration part of the Payen 1743 (production is still ongoing). I'm thinking about restoring another deck, and I'm open to suggestions.

Preferably, the deck would have all or most of the following traits:

- It should have never been in print, or be difficult to find copies
- It should appeal to me (duh). I tend to like the TdM woodcut decks, but I'm open to other types of decks. I've always wanted a deck that would seem at home in an old carnival (say 1890-1930) - maybe that deck is already out there, and is just looking for someone to give it a little love?
- The full deck should exist - I can recreate pips, but I wouldn't try to invent any non-pip cards.

Decks I've considered and rejected:

Dodal - too similar to Payen. What would be the point?
Vieville - This deck seems to be easily available, and possibly even still in print.
Noblet - A reproduction is not available, but the Flornoy recreation is.

 

[Debra]

Are you working off of internet scans of decks owned by other people, or decks that you own yourself?

 

[thinbuddha]

Ideally, I would be obtaining hi-res scans of a never before published deck from a museum, but I'm open to suggestions for other sources.

 

[thorhammer]

Possibly useless suggestion from left-field:

How about the Sangreal Thoth?

\m/ Kat

 

[Promise]

Vieville...still in print?....readily available?....then why in the name of all that is shiny have I been looking for one for months!

Hmmm...I'm sure there's a suitable deck out there. I'm thinking of one in particular that I cannot for the life of me remember the name of right now. Off to Google! I'll see if I can find it.

 

[Major Tom]

There's always the Chossen. Please forgive any spelling errors.

I think Yale-Cary have high res b&w scans for free and quite a variety of decks.

 

[Debra]

Well. Hm. I believe that legally (and ethically, too) you can't sell prints made from online museum scans, unless you pay licensing fees.

Same for taking someone's repro deck, retouching it a little, and selling it.

 

[thinbuddha]

you can't sell prints made from online museum scans, unless you pay licensing fees.

That's the idea.

 

[Debra]

I'm confused. Are you paying licensing fees? For the Payen?

 

[thinbuddha]

I was never able to locate the decks owner, but contacted a lawyer who specializes in issues with antique print reproductions. His opinion was I couldn't simply reproduce and sell it the way I had originally set out to do. I retooled my process, and because of the way I went about it (it is more than simply touching up an existing deck- it is bordering on a recreation), he felt that I had made sufficient effort & changes to the existing deck to claim it as my own. This, of course, was an opinion that was delivered with plenty of caveats, and caveats make me nervous. Because of this, I would not feel secure with doing any sort of mass printing of Payen, even though a lawyer told me I didn't need to worry. Without a mass printing, it's unlikely that I'll ever collect enough money to justify all the hours I've spent. This has not been a lucrative endeavor, by any means- and I don't expect that it will ever be.

Long story short- I enjoyed the process, and I sort of look forward to the possibility of doing another deck, but before I would ever do it again, I would want a iron clad contract in place.