Introducing the Third in the fig. 23 "Storybook" Series of Flip-Book Animated Playing Cards! Following the "Wonderland" and "Looking-Glass" decks, fig. 23 is proud to present "The Wizard of Oz" deck, featuring the original illustrations by W. W. Denslow from the 1900 book by L. Frank Baum. Designed and animated by Stephen W. Brandt. This deck, as with all of the other fig. 23 decks, has two different jokers. It is of the same design and pips as the two previous "storybook" decks. The flip-book animation depicts Dorothy's house being tossed-around within the tornado, transporting Dorothy and Toto to the land of Oz. Of course, being true to "The Wizard of Oz," the diamonds have been replaced with emeralds (same shape, different color - easy-peasy). Keep in mind that this deck is based upon the original book, not the movie - so the slippers on the backside are silver, not ruby!

Fig. 25 Playing Cards is a detailed tribute to Erdnase and the infamous Expert at the Card Table book. Not only do the decks include illustrations from the book, each deck is uniquely wrapped to look like a mini replica Expert at the Card Table book. The cards themselves are elegant, having custom back designs with METALLIC inks. Why are they called Fig. 25? S.W. Erdnase stated that the most important "artifice" one could master with a deck of playing cards is the bottom deal. The M.D. Smith illustration for this invaluable lesson is fig. 25. The Back Design Fig. 25 illustration is tastefully incorporated into the back design. The floral back design frames the illustration with acorns, a symbol from the book's original 1902 cover. Card Stock and Finish The cards are printed on the highest quality Bee card stock as is used by casinos around the world. Traditional Cut The deck is cut using the "Traditional" cut method made famous by Richard Turner. This is the method preferred by professionals for the precise handling and shuffling of the cards. Custom Jokers and Ace of Spades The custom Jokers use imagery from the deck's floral back design, along with two of the most popular and famous quotes from the book (one of them regarding the bottom deal's importance). The Ace of Spades: The shape of the "Spade" is modeled after the Ace of Spades from the "Bicycle Spectrum Playing Deck," which is also the Logo for the Spectrum Playing Cards LLC. The Ace also contains copyright information and the company name using actual typeface from the Expert at the Card Table book. The Faces The original intention was to place the various illustrations by The M.D. Smith throughout the deck until Mark Calabrese, an Erdnase aficionado as well as a highly skilled sleight of hand artist, had a brilliant idea: Imagine cutting the shape of a card directly from the pages of the book... and then printing each page on EVERY card! GENIUS! The result is the most detailed and TRUE TRIBUTE DECK to Erdnase, EVER designed! EACH page was scanned at high resolution, carefully placed for aesthetics, one card at a time, and then meticulously lightened and colorized in a sepia tone to balance out the contrast of the image.

BookDecks pay homage to the GREAT classics in magic and card literature! The Fig. 25 BookDeck is a deck of cards, meticulously designed around the most famous card book in History, The Expert at the Card table. The high quality and elegant deck comes in a unique, hand assembled card box, a replica to the classic book by S.W. Erdnase. The Standard version has a Linen Card Stock Book Cover with gold foil stamped cover title and spine. To continue the tribute to Erdnase, the cards appear to have been printed on sections of the pages from the original book, The Expert at the Card Table. The images have been balanced out and adjusted to give it a vintage tone, as well as keeping the card easy to read.