Yes,, I was aware of the existence of that Norwood deck. The exact number of copies that exist is a little uncertain because there is at lest one copy that has changed hands a couple of times so that it possibly gets counted more than once but I am of the opinion that ten or less known copies is about right, As I write this, I can only account for eight copies: one each with the Beinecke Rare Book Library at Yale University, the Library at Columbia University, The New York Historical Society, the United States Playing Card company and three in the hands of individual collectors.

Hello bHong, HeartQ and JWats01. It's nice to see some interest in this deck. The scans distort the actual background of the pictures which is what I call a "burnt orange". Definitely not yellow. In the March, 2013 issue of Clear the Decks, I did an in-depth comparison of the court cards in this deck with those of the standard design. That article is still available for viewing on the 52Plus Joker website.

I  had purchased quite a few of these deck directly from the Swiss maker, Muller. When I offered them for sale on eBay for $5.00, I was contacted by a dealer in the Ruby Lane group that goes by the very odd name of "Two For His Heels" He purchased nearly every deck that I had but I kept a few. Some I donated to a drive for the troops fighting in Iraq. I still have four decks left. If you search Ruby Lane and then search that site for Tavaglione, you will find the deck for $20.00 or two for $35.00. I never charged more than $5.00 per deck plus postage and that is where I stand today. Muller, by the way, was taken over by another company and I do not believe that the deck has been in production for a long time. eMail me at cardstar@ptd.net if you wish to buy the deck. To be fair, I will allocate one deck for each of you.
Rod Starling (Watson7)     

I know that it is difficult to design a deck with new court cards. Historically, changes to the standard court card designs have been rejected by the public. That is why the standard designs have remained essentially unchanged for over 600 years. To be a commercial success, a newly designed deck must appeal to the general public, not just to collectors. But even with collectors there is a divide in general interests. The older collectors, of which there are many, generally prefer vintage, antique decks while the younger collectors, of which there are few, generally will accept newly designed decks.

Many years ago, I touted the virtues of a deck in which the Italian artist, Giorgio Tavaglione, designed new court cards. The deck was produced in 1985 and I obtained some copies which I offered for sale to members of the 52 Plus Joker club. Then as now, the membership of the club was mostly comprised of older collectors and the deck did not draw much interest. I sold just five decks. I was surprised by the lack of interest in the deck because although the court cards were newly designed, the artist had retained and even enhanced all of the elements from the standard designs. Now, after nearly 30 years since its production, the deck is beginning to assume vintage aspects. I am attaching scans of the court cards and would like to know what you think of them.

You certainly are diversified. Your real name has an interesting literary "namesake". You may already know this: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was friends with a certain Doctor James Watson. Both were members of the same  literary society. Sir Arthur's Sherlock Holmes stories were narrated by Doctor John Watson but is believed that "John" was just an attempt to hide the real source of the stories. In fact, in the story "The Adventure of the Man With the Twisted Lip", Doctor Watson',s  wife actually refers to him as "James". Sir Arthur slipped up there and 20 years later he did so again in a letter to his publisher in which he suggested a new set of stories based on the reminiscences of James Watson, M.D. If you search Yahoo for my article, The Case For the Real Doctor Watson, you may enjoy it.   

Time for an early American deck. I was going to begin with......This is one of my favorites.... but if I go down that road, every deck I post will start that way. I love them all. So, here we have a complete Russell & Morgan Printing Company poker sized, c.1888, gold edged Euchre deck consisting of 32 cards, a Joker, four counter cards and the rules for playing the game. It is listed in the Hochman Encyclopedia as US12. The four counter cards have a back design that is different from the rest of the deck with the words "Progressive Euchre" printed thereon. The Ace of Spades is elaborately engraved and the Joker shows representations for the then seven cabinet Secretaries of Interior, War, Navy, State, Treasury, Attorney General and Postmaster General. Click on the picture to enlarge.

Thanks< James,
What is you area of interest?
Rod. 

Hi Don,
I thank you and all of the other kind members for the warm welcome extended to me. I look forward to sharing whatever may be of interest to all concerned. It is exciting to have this vast new area to explore but on the other hand, I feel like a mosquito in a nudist camp----- I don't know where to get started. My great editor, HeartQ, has mentioned my interest in good repro decks. She has seen several of them that I showed in the 52 Plus Joker News Letter, "Clear the Decks" Usually, it is historical European decks that are reproduced but collectors should not fear the area. Many of the repros are of decks of which there are very few originals in existence and in one case, where there is only one original in existence. I have often pointed out that good repro decks are analogous to the field of fine art where prints of one of a kind masterworks are highly prized and costly. I will post some good repro decks in due course and I am confident that when their features, as I will detail them, are appreciated they will appeal to even the casual collector. They may even serve as inspiration to those members who are or aspire to be designers of playing cards because in order to succeed with anything new there must be an element of something old, something that the mind recognizes and feels comfortable with..

This is one of a series of so called "Costume Cards" produced in France in the mid-nineteenth century. It features named historical figures and being engraved and hand colored, they were produced in limited quantities and therefore quite rare. I have no doubt that the decks were expensive and that their value was appreciated at the time of their creation. Most specimens found are gold edged and usually in excellent condition, an indication that they were carefully preserved.  If any interest is shown for this type of deck, I will post scan of others.

Tom Dawson invited me to join the party so this is my first post. After consultation with Tom, he thought that my choice of topic would be of interest not withstanding the fact that I have written about it at least twice in the pages of the 52 Plus Joker News Letter, Clear the Decks, the last time being about six years ago. However, since this forum reaches those who may not be members of 52 Plus Joker, this post may, hopefully, be well received. With those non members chiefly in mind, I will begin.
The Norwood 85 deck was produced by the United States Playing Card Company c.1919 and is described in the Hochman Encyclopedia as being one of the most beautiful decks produced by that company. For reasons that years of research have failed to discover, the deck was never released for general sale and as far as I have been able to ascertain there are less than a dozen copies known to exist. One copy, of course is held by the United States Playing Card Company. There is also one copy each in the Beinecke Rare Book Library at Yale University, The New York Historical Society and the library of Columbia University in New York City. The few remaining copies are in the hands of collectors. There are two very puzzling things about the rarity of the deck. First is the fact that it is known to exist with two different back designs. Second, among the known copies of the deck, some are gold edged and some are not. That would seem to be odd state of affairs for a deck that was never released for general sale. In fact, the deck has never been found in its own identifiable box. The copies of the deck that I have been able to locate have been found either without a box at all or found in a nameless generic box. There is one exception. One deck exists in a box designed for the Bijou No.1 deck and that adds further interest to the matter because both the Norwood 85 deck and the Bijou No.1 deck have the same unusual pip card format. The two back designs were taken from famous works of art. All but one of the copies that I have been able to document have a back design from a painting named "The Storm" shown here. The remaining copy has a back design taken from a painting variously known as "Cupid and Psyche" or "Armor and Psyche". That particular copy is the one in the Columbia University library.