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Re: Theodore Deland

Posted: May 18th, 2018, 9:26 am
by Randy DiMarco
BTW - I might have a bias because an Automatic Deck was the first magic trick I ever got way back when at the Houdini Museum in Niagara Falls.

Re: Theodore Deland

Posted: May 18th, 2018, 10:29 am
by Jonathan Townsend
Richard Kaufman wrote:... a particular trick of DeLand's.

One particular trick. What's involved in doing this trick in context? An extra deck carried set to go?
Introducing special cards on the fly can be a challenge - recall the Bob Elliot story about his set of Poor Charlie cards on a hot summer day ;)

Re: Theodore Deland

Posted: May 18th, 2018, 10:41 am
by I.M. Magician
The diversity of opinions here does not surprise me. From practicality to nostalgic, everyone has their preference concerning what cards they want to see included.

That’s why I am hoping that Richard goes for both worlds. That way, everyone will be happy and the Deland release will be as comprehensive as possible.

Re: Theodore Deland

Posted: May 18th, 2018, 5:34 pm
by joshua barrett
What would be the price difference though? One reason he is including two decks is that of min order sizes etc. So it sounds like to include both a practical deck and a "period" deck would raise the cost of the book, maybe substantially, because your now talking 4 decks per book. Personally, a for "feels" nostalgia deck would have little value to me, and probably to others that might be costed out of the book completely?

I dunno, just a perspective.

Re: Theodore Deland

Posted: May 18th, 2018, 7:05 pm
by I.M. Magician
I do agree that there is a limit to what I would want to pay for two more additional decks. Full color photos of the vintage cards in the books would be good enough if adding two more decks is very costly.

The question is...how much more would it cost? Richard will have that answer.

Re: Theodore Deland

Posted: May 18th, 2018, 8:32 pm
by Richard Kaufman
There are large photos of every card, in color, in the book. Every back design is shown (many of which are original with DeLand).

It would cost about $16 per book just for the four decks, which is a lot.

The book itself is half the size of Tenyoism (one volume of 600+ pages rather than two), but actually has been more work over a 15 year period. Tenyoism I knocked off pretty quickly in less than three years.

It's very difficult to discern where the line is, regarding the retail price, which alienates potential customers. Will DeLand cost $125? $150? $175? That decision has not been made yet.

Re: Theodore Deland

Posted: May 18th, 2018, 8:42 pm
by I.M. Magician
If you set the price at $125 and had to raise it to $150 in order to include 4 decks rather than 2, I would say include 4 decks. I am sure many others would agree with that!

That’s my take on it. Something tells me that you will include 2 decks and keep the price at $125. :(

Re: Theodore Deland

Posted: May 18th, 2018, 9:00 pm
by PickaCard
Richard Kaufman wrote:It would cost about $16 per book just for the four decks, which is a lot.


Uhmm. It costs me about $16 for 4 regular decks...

So $16 for 4 special Deland decks is a deal. Actually, at that price I would want 8 ;)

Re: Theodore Deland

Posted: May 18th, 2018, 9:19 pm
by joshua barrett
I.M. Magician wrote:If you set the price at $125 and had to raise it to $150 in order to include 4 decks rather than 2, I would say include 4 decks. I am sure many others would agree with that!

That’s my take on it. Something tells me that you will include 2 decks and keep the price at $125. :(


I would agree, assuming that would be the range. I think once you get past 150 you have to think about people getting put off because of price.

Re: Theodore Deland

Posted: May 18th, 2018, 9:43 pm
by Bill Mullins
The Deland gimmicks consist of (among other things) double enders, double backers, double faces, cards with fans of cards printed on the face, odd cards like the ones for Rainbow (confetti overprint), and Fadeaway (hand overprint); illusion cards like "Grin or Grouch", "6 or 7 dice" and "La Mysterieuse"; and decks with special marks on the back like the Daisy, Nifty, and Dollar decks. If the cards that come with the book have representative samples of all of these, then it won't consist of a full deck of all fifty-two faces. Likewise, if a particular back is selected, and a deck of all fifty-two faces is provided with that back, then a bunch of the gimmicks will be missing.

When the special deck was first mentioned, I had just assumed that it would be a selection of gimmicks and backs sufficient to fill a box -- not a full deck of any sort. Besides, if you wanted a deck with "nostalgic" Deland backs, the Automatic deck and the $100 deck are available already.

Re: Theodore Deland

Posted: May 18th, 2018, 9:50 pm
by I.M. Magician
I was assuming that what would be included would be of the card packet variety. I assumed that full trick decks would not be included. So, what we would get would be complete usable sets and maybe a few really interesting cards Deland created as individual entities.

Re: Theodore Deland

Posted: May 18th, 2018, 10:48 pm
by Jonathan Townsend
Richard Kaufman wrote:There are large photos of every card, in color, in the book. Every back design is shown (many of which are original with DeLand)...

How close does that get folks to being able to print up their own gaffs using the Deland artwork?

Re: Theodore Deland

Posted: May 18th, 2018, 10:57 pm
by I.M. Magician
Jonathan Townsend wrote:
Richard Kaufman wrote:There are large photos of every card, in color, in the book. Every back design is shown (many of which are original with DeLand)...

How close does that get folks to being able to print up their own gaffs using the Deland artwork?


I would say not very close actually. Printed cards would be the way to go. If Richard does them using Maiden backs, then we will be able to perform at least some of the effects.

It’s like that old FAKO deck but for Deland designed cards.

Re: Theodore Deland

Posted: May 18th, 2018, 11:15 pm
by Richard Kaufman
The so-called Automatic Deck and the so-called $100 deck are both DeLand's Dollar Deck. Same thing.

What I am going to do is print essentially a new FAKO deck of 54 cards that will allow you to perform, with regular Bicycle Riderback cards, a bunch of the tricks requiring specially printed gimmicked cards. I have the tricks, and the cards, already selected. There are some DeLand gimmicked cards that can't be printed now. This will be clear when reading the book.

Re: Theodore Deland

Posted: May 31st, 2018, 12:30 am
by Bill Mullins
Someone has posted sample pages on Facebook.

Re: Theodore Deland

Posted: October 14th, 2019, 11:54 am
by Bill Mullins
Someone is doing a Kickstarter for the Daisy Deck and the Nifty Deck.

Re: Theodore Deland

Posted: October 14th, 2019, 2:01 pm
by Richard Kaufman
Gee, what a surprise.
They don't seem to have any idea that DeLand designed the court cards with their odd faces.

Re: Theodore Deland

Posted: October 16th, 2019, 1:23 pm
by Rob Block
It's being done by Penguin Magic. The comments page says they contacted Richard "as the foremost Deland expert".

Re: Theodore Deland

Posted: October 16th, 2019, 2:35 pm
by Richard Kaufman
They may have asked me about rights to the two decks, but I think that's it.
The unusual faces of the court cards, which some mistakenly took as proof that he was an anti-Semite (DeLand was married to a Jewish woman), were designed and engraved by DeLand.

Re: Theodore Deland

Posted: January 31st, 2022, 1:05 am
by Bill Mullins
From the section on the "One Line Engraving", in which Deland engraved a portrait by a single line spiralling out from the center, with the weight of the line changing to make the portrait:


Many years ago a celebrated lithographer succeeded in producing from stone a portrait of the Lord made by one line starting in spiral form from the nose.


Here it is.

Re: Theodore Deland

Posted: January 31st, 2022, 11:49 am
by Richard Kaufman
Great find, Bill! Wish I'd had it for the book. I assume you are quoting from DeLand's advertisement.

Re: Theodore Deland

Posted: January 31st, 2022, 1:52 pm
by Bill Mullins
Originally, it's from an article in The Sphinx, describing the One Line Engraving. (Maybe the Sphinx cribbed an advertisement of Deland's?)

Re: Theodore Deland

Posted: March 15th, 2022, 10:39 pm
by Topovich
Richard Kaufman wrote:
Rob Block wrote:It's being done by Penguin Magic. The comments page says they contacted Richard "as the foremost Deland expert".
They may have asked me about rights to the two decks, but I think that's it.
The unusual faces of the court cards, which some mistakenly took as proof that he was an anti-Semite (DeLand was married to a Jewish woman), were designed and engraved by DeLand.

Here's what Penguin posted on the comments page. This is accurate?

Image