15th Century French Deck

[variantventures]

I'd like to emphasize that the courts are not my design work.  I took images of a surviving deck and cleaned them up a little.  There were only two Jacks in the surviving cards so I decided to flip those and use them to substitute for the missing Jacks rather than creating new ones.  I already don't like the darkness of the faux-antique background and I'm definitely going to lighten that up.  The pip cards are arranged according to French standards and I pushed them as close to the edges of the cards as I dared.  I may have to move them more to the center and leave a larger border around the edges depending on how the test decks work out.  The originals would have been right up to the edge of the card.  I like the diamonds, clubs, and spades but the heart needs a little work.

I've got two other 15th century French decks to work on and then I'm going to bang out a bunch of 18th century decks (I've got images of six complete courts for those).

[Don Boyer]

Will this deck have a name, or is it simply known as "15th Century French Deck"?

I strongly applaud your decision to NOT use faux aging in the design.  I see too many decks with it these days, many for no good reason as they take away more from the design than they add.  It's like Westerns in Hollywood.  Everyone expects the buildings to be made of weathered, split clapboards with worn paint, dirty windows, rusty metal, etc., despite the fact that the movie's setting is much closer to the year they were first built than the century-plus since then that they spent exposed to the elements...

[bamabenz]

Will this deck have a name, or is it simply known as "15th Century French Deck"?

I strongly applaud your decision to NOT use faux aging in the design.  I see too many decks with it these days, many for no good reason as they take away more from the design than they add.  It's like Westerns in Hollywood.  Everyone expects the buildings to be made of weathered, split clapboards with worn paint, dirty windows, rusty metal, etc., despite the fact that the movie's setting is much closer to the year they were first built than the century-plus since then that they spent exposed to the elements...

I strongly agree with this. Some recent decks with gorgeous artwork are simply not appropriate for poker or bridge because the faux aging makes recognition an effort when one should be focused on the game itself.

[variantventures]

The faux aging is inappropriate in this case (natural or off-white would be better choices for the card backing) because it doesn't reflect what the cards would have really looked like.  Try telling that to my customers, however.  I am certain this deck would get a better reception, and more purchases, among my target audience with the current sepia tone than it will with the more accurate, lighter color background.

So far as names go this one will probably by Lyonnaise Number 1.  If I knew the name of the artist who originally drew the courts I'd name the deck after him.  Unfortunately his name is lost to history.

Readability is less of a concern for me.  This is, of course, horrible design from a modern stand-point, but I'm not (with this deck) concerned with making a modern deck.  These courts are among the earliest surviving images of playing cards and the pip cards are arranged as those early cards would have been.  When I use decks like these I typically play an early game like Karnoeffel and imagine what it was like when the design was first introduced.

[Fess]

The faux aging is inappropriate in this case (natural or off-white would be better choices for the card backing) because it doesn't reflect what the cards would have really looked like.  Try telling that to my customers, however.

That's a valid point. I recall reading several comments on one of the boards, I don't remember which exactly don't shoot me I've slept since then, about the Triplicates decks. They were commenting that it looked too new for their tastes. They expected something other than a brand spanking new deck of cards. The comments struck me as very strange which is why I remember them.

Sometimes the aged look will help, sometimes it won't. I'm the kind of buyer that doesn't want any fake aging on my cards, ever. The aged look has it's place. To me it's on very old playing cards that have earned the patina. As we all know though, our opinions are just our own. While I personally love mine, others often think my opinions stink.

[Don Boyer]

The faux aging is inappropriate in this case (natural or off-white would be better choices for the card backing) because it doesn't reflect what the cards would have really looked like.  Try telling that to my customers, however.  I am certain this deck would get a better reception, and more purchases, among my target audience with the current sepia tone than it will with the more accurate, lighter color background.

So far as names go this one will probably by Lyonnaise Number 1.  If I knew the name of the artist who originally drew the courts I'd name the deck after him.  Unfortunately his name is lost to history.

Readability is less of a concern for me.  This is, of course, horrible design from a modern stand-point, but I'm not (with this deck) concerned with making a modern deck.  These courts are among the earliest surviving images of playing cards and the pip cards are arranged as those early cards would have been.  When I use decks like these I typically play an early game like Karnoeffel and imagine what it was like when the design was first introduced.

You can go for a deeper tone for the background, if you wish - just make it a consistent, smooth color as opposed to one that's been dripped on and shoved in the dirt a bit.  Hey, if we can make a black deck, why can't we make a light sepia deck, right?

The faux aging is inappropriate in this case (natural or off-white would be better choices for the card backing) because it doesn't reflect what the cards would have really looked like.  Try telling that to my customers, however.

That's a valid point. I recall reading several comments on one of the boards, I don't remember which exactly don't shoot me I've slept since then, about the Triplicates decks. They were commenting that it looked too new for their tastes. They expected something other than a brand spanking new deck of cards. The comments struck me as very strange which is why I remember them.

Sometimes the aged look will help, sometimes it won't. I'm the kind of buyer that doesn't want any fake aging on my cards, ever. The aged look has it's place. To me it's on very old playing cards that have earned the patina. As we all know though, our opinions are just our own. While I personally love mine, others often think my opinions stink.

If the deck's theme calls for a grungy look, great.  If it's merely a reproduction, it's not outrageous to expect the cards to look new, since that's what they looked like to the people who bought the original cards.  And if the deck is neither grunge-themed nor a reproduction, what the hell is wrong with that designer?!    It's been used to the point of abused at this point.

[variantventures]

Here's the deck.

  There were only two jacks in the surviving deck so I've repeated those.  I just today came across another image of cards from this deck which might show the missing jacks.  I haven't had time yet to check.

[Don Boyer]

Looks pretty good so far.  Are you planning to make them close-as-possible reproductions, or would you be including things like rounded corners and indices?

[variantventures]

This deck is optimized for the 'as close as possible' crowd right now.  In fact, the printer just agreed to do these with square corners rather than the standard rounded corners.

I plan to re-size the cards and include corner indices so as to offer a modern version of this deck.  I don't think it will sell all that well but it'll only take about 8 hours and I've been wrong before.  And, of course, I have the benefit of being able to upload the design and pretty much forget about it so why not make it available even if it's only a few folks who want it?

[Don Boyer]

This deck is optimized for the 'as close as possible' crowd right now.  In fact, the printer just agreed to do these with square corners rather than the standard rounded corners.

I plan to re-size the cards and include corner indices so as to offer a modern version of this deck.  I don't think it will sell all that well but it'll only take about 8 hours and I've been wrong before.  And, of course, I have the benefit of being able to upload the design and pretty much forget about it so why not make it available even if it's only a few folks who want it?

It looks like a design that has some commercial potential.

You could make a version with the updated features of rounded corners and indices, then create a special limited edition with the square corners and no indices, maybe some gilding or gold foil on the cards.

Many wealthy people in the age before the printing press had decks commissioned from artists that were far too costly to be played with - they bought them as a way of showing off their wealth to their guests.  Your special edition could be more like that kind of deck.