Full Deck Scan: https://cardscans.piwigo.com/index?/category/871-lucky_cats

Full deck scan by macstrat @ https://cardscans.piwigo.com/index?/category/411-architect

Playing cards are the primary building blocks and tools with which we create our magic. Just as an architect must carefully plan and build his structures; magicians must take equal care in structuring their effects and presentations. Architect playing cards are the perfect tribute to an art & craft that shares so much with magic.

Designed by Jared Hansen and printed by the Expert Playing Card Company, the Architect deck is truly a sight to behold. The stunning tuck box is crafted from a heavy-duty deep blue matte paper that's adorned on all sides with intricately applied silver foil.

The cards themselves have the look of a blueprint, featuring a beautiful blue & white back design with fine line work. The faces are Expert Standard with a custom DaVinci-inspired Ace of Spades and identical drawing compass Jokers. The handling is superb thanks to Damask finish, which has a medium thickness and snap with an exquisite embossing pattern and texture.

After a year of detailed development with the United States Playing Card Company, we are proud to introduce The Black Lions, printed on custom casino-quality card stock and traditionally cut with new blades to create our best feeling deck yet.

Our new soft-touch box design features a two-tone black finish and silver foil stamping on top of a fully detailed quality embossing. Each deck comes in Tamariz stack and contains a number of new never-before seen hidden features. 

Scans of each card can be seen at www.marytcusack.com/maryc/decks/html/Cards/Inferno.html

Dante Alighieri is the most prominent Italian poet and "La Divina Commedia" (the Divine Comedy) is his masterpiece, representing his vision of afterlife, divided in three reigns: Inferno (hell), Purgatorio (purgatory) and Paradiso (heaven). “La Divina Commedia” also marks the beginning of the Italian language, used in an important piece of literature, replacing the official Latin language. The court cards and the aces represent characters that Dante and Virgilio (the Jokers in Inferno - Dite), his guide, meet during the journey, until they find Lucifer (the Joker in Inferno - Cocito).

The red cards show sinner who are damned for passion-related sins, while the black cards portray sinners who used their intelligence to betray and deceive (Dante places the latter much deeper in hell).

Here you can find a list of all the characters: Dante, Virgilio, Paolo e F

rancesca, Ulisse e Diomede, Cerbero, Erinni, Minosse, Semiramide, Minotauro, Malacoda, Taide, Conte Ugolino, Pluto, Cleopatra, Gerione, Arpie, Giasone.

Scans of each card can be seen at www.marytcusack.com/maryc/decks/html/Cards/Inferno.html

Dante Alighieri is the most prominent Italian poet and "La Divina Commedia" (the Divine Comedy) is his masterpiece, representing his vision of afterlife, divided in three reigns: Inferno (hell), Purgatorio (purgatory) and Paradiso (heaven). “La Divina Commedia” also marks the beginning of the Italian language, used in an important piece of literature, replacing the official Latin language. The court cards and the aces represent characters that Dante and Virgilio (the Jokers in Inferno - Dite), his guide, meet during the journey, until they find Lucifer (the Joker in Inferno - Cocito).

The red cards show sinner who are damned for passion-related sins, while the black cards portray sinners who used their intelligence to betray and deceive (Dante places the latter much deeper in hell).

Here you can find a list of all the characters: Dante, Virgilio, Paolo e F

rancesca, Ulisse e Diomede, Cerbero, Erinni, Minosse, Semiramide, Minotauro, Malacoda, Taide, Conte Ugolino, Pluto, Cleopatra, Gerione, Arpie, Giasone.

Dante Alighieri, an Italian poet and philosoper had an eerie vision about the afterlife more than seven centuries ago. His vision has been included into one of the masterpieces of the Italian culture: the Divine Comedy (La Divina Commedia).

Now, 750 years after the birth of Dante Alighieri, Stefano Protino has designed a deck permeated by his vision of afterlife. Prepare yourself for hell, prepare yourself for a new, limited deck from Passione – Italian Design Playing Cards!

• the deck (52+2 cards) wrapped in paper and sealed with wax (the sealing has been purposely done so that it’s not needed to break the seal in order to open the deck). The paper has a stamp on it saying “imprimatur expectant” (waiting for the permission to print). This is our interpretation of the mood of the deck: an unfinished work (you can see it on the faces, obviously) expecting a formal ok from the Catholic Church (in the past it was not possible to have a book printed without the Vatican’s approval, after that you would have granted the “imprimatur” that means “let’s print”);
• a cardboard box with a false bottom, designed to hold 2 decks (more on this later);
• a cardboard double message (“invenit qui quaerit”: a latin motto meaning “seek and ye shall find” and “dear friend please complete my artwork”: a direct message for you – more on this later);
• a “blank” card – the one the author wants you to complete, useful for card tricks or for entering the contest (more on this later);
• a little piece of charcoal wrapped in a shred of tissue paper, to enforce the mood of an unfinished work that needs to be completed.

China’s extraordinary history dates back to more than 5000 years and provides a rich collection of royal subjects which forms the basis of the Chao Playing Cards (limited production run of 12k each).

Over the lengthy span of Chinese history, each Chao (which is the pronounced word for dynasty in the Chinese language) is distinguished by the name and the impact of the individuals that ruled over that period of time. This very special and unique deck of cards pays tribute to four of the greatest and most recognized dynasties in Chinese history – Han, Tang, Ming and Qing. Each dynasty has an outstanding and reputable Emperor, Empress and General, each with their own notorious traits and fascinating stories. The Chao depict these influential men and women that were renowned and celebrated from each of the four famous dynasties.

To ensure we captured the essence of each dynasty, we invested a lot of time and resource into the research part of this project. The illustrations and design takes inspiration from not only the renowned rulers of the four Dynasties but also from Chinese culture itself, which is visible throughout the deck.

The chosen Chinese Emperors, Empresses and Generals all represent great power, wealth and wisdom, each with different traits and personalities and each dynasty holds their own trademarks to differentiate them from others. Inspired by these different elements, each Emperor features distinct clothing and accessories from their era, Empress’s have different hair pieces and holds the instrument that they played and Generals wear armor and yield the weapon used to fight in their notorious battles. Fine intricate details are added onto each court card, allowing each individual to possess different facial features which best reflects their character.

The Chao was designed to closely follow that of a traditional deck of cards in terms of positioning including head facing direction, hand placements and the presence of weapons and artifacts.

The 4 aces includes very detailed Chinese patterns. We also added a Chinese dragon on the ace of spades – a symbolism of imperial power and strength.

Each suit i.e. Spades, Hearts, Clubs and Diamonds reflects one of the four chosen dynasties (Han, Tang, Ming and Qing), with a renowned Emperor, Empress and General from that dynasty representing the King, Queen and Jack. Choosing who or what to use to represent the Jokers was not a straight forward task as we wanted these 2 very important cards to have some significant value so we chose 2 very important figures which are still looked very highly upon even up until this present day.

The Chao playing cards represents the History of China and where better to produce this deck than in China itself.

This is not just any ordinary deck of cards from China, but a completely new limited edition deck (only 12k of each will be produced) manufactured by MPC in terms of design and materials. We broke down the elements that make a great deck of cards and re-engineered it in its entirety from card stock finishing to varnishing used. The card stock is a new much lighter card stock which was specifically developed to obtain a perfect balance between the softness and stiffness needed to excel in performance such as for cardistry, magic tricks and handling. The new varnishing was a monumental part to this project which has been in development over the past 2 years. It took longer than we wanted but it was completely worth the time and investment. The outcome is truly exceptional. I guess you will have to try it to feel the unique difference of this newly engineered deck. As this deck is a limited edition, once it runs out, that’ll be it. If we have any more decks left after this project, they will be sold at a higher price on our website until they run out.

The tuck box completes the overall aesthetics of the deck and come in a carefully chosen choice of two significant and representative colors of China, porcelain blue and vermilion red. Embossing and gold foil stamping is used to symbolize wealth and royalty.

The Chao Playing Cards are designed and manufactured by MakePlayingCards.com (MPC), a professional playing cards manufacturer with over 35 years of experience specializing in custom playing cards and game cards. We are very proud to introduce the Chao Playing Cards, the first of its kind, brought to you by MPC.

KickStarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/makeplayingcards/chao-dynasties-of-china-an-imperial-deck-of-playin

China’s extraordinary history dates back to more than 5000 years and provides a rich collection of royal subjects which forms the basis of the Chao Playing Cards (limited production run of 12k each).

Over the lengthy span of Chinese history, each Chao (which is the pronounced word for dynasty in the Chinese language) is distinguished by the name and the impact of the individuals that ruled over that period of time. This very special and unique deck of cards pays tribute to four of the greatest and most recognized dynasties in Chinese history – Han, Tang, Ming and Qing. Each dynasty has an outstanding and reputable Emperor, Empress and General, each with their own notorious traits and fascinating stories. The Chao depict these influential men and women that were renowned and celebrated from each of the four famous dynasties.

To ensure we captured the essence of each dynasty, we invested a lot of time and resource into the research part of this project. The illustrations and design takes inspiration from not only the renowned rulers of the four Dynasties but also from Chinese culture itself, which is visible throughout the deck.

The chosen Chinese Emperors, Empresses and Generals all represent great power, wealth and wisdom, each with different traits and personalities and each dynasty holds their own trademarks to differentiate them from others. Inspired by these different elements, each Emperor features distinct clothing and accessories from their era, Empress’s have different hair pieces and holds the instrument that they played and Generals wear armor and yield the weapon used to fight in their notorious battles. Fine intricate details are added onto each court card, allowing each individual to possess different facial features which best reflects their character.

The Chao was designed to closely follow that of a traditional deck of cards in terms of positioning including head facing direction, hand placements and the presence of weapons and artifacts.

The 4 aces includes very detailed Chinese patterns. We also added a Chinese dragon on the ace of spades – a symbolism of imperial power and strength.

Each suit i.e. Spades, Hearts, Clubs and Diamonds reflects one of the four chosen dynasties (Han, Tang, Ming and Qing), with a renowned Emperor, Empress and General from that dynasty representing the King, Queen and Jack. Choosing who or what to use to represent the Jokers was not a straight forward task as we wanted these 2 very important cards to have some significant value so we chose 2 very important figures which are still looked very highly upon even up until this present day.

The Chao playing cards represents the History of China and where better to produce this deck than in China itself.

This is not just any ordinary deck of cards from China, but a completely new limited edition deck (only 12k of each will be produced) manufactured by MPC in terms of design and materials. We broke down the elements that make a great deck of cards and re-engineered it in its entirety from card stock finishing to varnishing used. The card stock is a new much lighter card stock which was specifically developed to obtain a perfect balance between the softness and stiffness needed to excel in performance such as for cardistry, magic tricks and handling. The new varnishing was a monumental part to this project which has been in development over the past 2 years. It took longer than we wanted but it was completely worth the time and investment. The outcome is truly exceptional. I guess you will have to try it to feel the unique difference of this newly engineered deck. As this deck is a limited edition, once it runs out, that’ll be it. If we have any more decks left after this project, they will be sold at a higher price on our website until they run out.

The tuck box completes the overall aesthetics of the deck and come in a carefully chosen choice of two significant and representative colors of China, porcelain blue and vermilion red. Embossing and gold foil stamping is used to symbolize wealth and royalty.

The Chao Playing Cards are designed and manufactured by MakePlayingCards.com (MPC), a professional playing cards manufacturer with over 35 years of experience specializing in custom playing cards and game cards. We are very proud to introduce the Chao Playing Cards, the first of its kind, brought to you by MPC.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/makeplayingcards/chao-dynasties-of-china-an-imperial-deck-of-playin?ref=discovery&term=chao

Full deck scan by macstrat @ https://cardscans.piwigo.com/index?/category/104-chao