3 MAY 2021 - WHY SO EXPENSIVE??
I can highly recommend purchasing from Jean Claude Flornoy or Sullivan Hismans (Tarot Sheet Revival) instead.
These cards by RM Place (USA) are based on the OLDEST tarocchi FOUND to date. (NOT the oldest CREATED. We can’t know that). Some of us know these images from Sullivan Hismans of Tarot Sheet Revival and his "Budapest Tarot" named after the collection at the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts.
Robert Place's also took his image sources from the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts, and the Met in NYC.
There are other copies of this tarot in the Cary Yale collection as well as in private collection(s) the last time I checked, one of which held the actual stencil used to colour the original.
I bought this from Robert Place several years ago, can't remember when.
I always respect Robert Place for his hustle. From never failing to keep tabs on trends, to removing the most important part in an extra thick book filled with historical facts, the index section, so he can maximize international purchases by limiting postal costs, to renaming decks like this to limit competitions and comparisons to better produced decks from the same origin, to artificially limiting supply to maximize profit as you can see here, while at the same time minimising taxing work by printing instead of hand drawing or applying colours by stencils. I could go on.
But I’ve got to say my patience and understanding were sorely tested as I purchase this copy.
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COMPARE TO JEAN CLAUDE FLORNOY (FRANCE)
Contrast the prices of Flornoy's hand stencilled Jean Dodal and Jean Noblet which are EUR 42 and EUR 38 respectively plus shipping. They are some of the best made and best price tarot facsimiles and redrawing which you can find in the market at the time of this video. I can highly recommend them. We will take a closer look at these Flornoys in a separate video/s.
COMPARE TO SULLIVAN HISMANS /TAROT SHEET REVIVAL (BELGIUM)
In terms of exclusivity, check out Sullivan’s work especially his hand painted and hand made reproduction copies. Then contrast the prices. The prices of Robert Place’s PRINTED copies here is very comparable to Sullivan’s HAND COLOURED ones.
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WHAT I LIKE
1) The quality
2) The design (re-design)
WHAT I DON'T LIKE
1) The price
I have a relatively high price tolerance, I think. But "even" I am baffled by the high asking price of this deck. ESPECIALLY when compared to Jean Claude Flornoy's hand stencilled majors only Dodal and Noblet. Having said that, I do understand the "Robert M Place" element in the price. The question is, how much is this worth to you. This particular recreation, with this lines and colours, I believe is uniquely his, and would under most copyright laws, belong to RM Place, instead of history.
2) Hard to shuffle
Like all non laminated art or water colour papers, they were not made to slide against each other.
In the old tradition, cartier will rub a bar of soap on each surface to facilitate sliding and reduce friction. But with our modern business model, where time is money, this is most probably deemed too time consuming, except by a handful of cartiers that I know of, all of whom I highly respect because of their dedication to the old tradition. They are scattered across Belgium, France, and Argentina. No one I know in the USA does it.
3) The term "facsimile"
Unless I misunderstood the term, this is misleading. Since it is not an exact copy, but a recreation of a new deck based on an old one.
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THIS VIDEO HAS NOT BEEN MONETISED BY ME.
Adsense revenue goes to the copyright holder of the sound track you can hear here.
I am not affiliated or associated with RM Place in any way.
I purchased this with my personal funds at full price plus international shipping between USA and New Zealand.
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#HistoricalTarot #BudapestTarot #OldestTarot