Antiquarian

The record

The Antiquarian Tarot is a collage deck created by Maree Bento of Portland, Oregon, who is the proprietress of Etsy store Divine Muses. Maree is already much known in some circles for her Antiquarian Lenormond, and this deck falls very much within the same aesthetic. The deck follows the Albano-Waite system and is made of 19th century cabinet cards, bits of antique wallpaper and fabric, as well as vintage illustrations and Bento's own drawings/typography. The imagery here is deep and unique, like walking down a long hallway of antique family photos. That being said, anyone familiar with the Rider-Waite deck could pick this up and understand the symbolism. I found it very easy to read once I spent some time with it. Bento offers the deck in a mini, a standard, and a large size as well as two different paper stocks. I purchased the standard size in a linen stock and I'm glad I did. The linen texture gives the deck a really nice feel and makes shuffling a dream. If there’s any flaw at all with this deck, it’s that the suits are color-coded, with the court cards a different color than the other pips. An okay choice, but personally I might prefer the court cards to be in the same color

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