Ye Witches’ Fortune Cards
Review of the 2019 edition Ye Witches Fortune Cards No 62
Ye Witches Fortune Cards are a reproduction (see the original) custom pack for collectors and magicians, based on the original 1896 edition of the deck by the US Playing Card Company.
Produced by card magician Will Roya (www.playingcarddecks.com), illustrated by Azured Ox and manufactured by USPCC in two colours: red and green with different back designs to each in a limited edition of 2000 packs of each colour.
Above: each pack is supplied in a colour coordinated box - either red or green, corresponding to the colour of the backs of the cards inside, and printed with gold ink and sealed with an imitation tax stamp (of a design used between 1894 and 1896) and wrapped in cellophane.
Like the 19th century originals, the reproduction pack is cut to poker width, without corner indices and faithful reproductions of the original semi-transformation images including the two jokers and in addition two gaff cards: a blank face card and a double-back card to further expand the scope for use by card magicians. The green pack has the witch flying a broomstick back design while the red back pack depicts the witches coven scene.
Packs are sold either as a pair comprising one pack of each colour; individually or as an uncut sheet. The reproduction packs do not include the fortune telling instructions included with the original pack, but can be downloaded as a free eight-page PDF from the publisher's web site at: playingcarddecks.com/products/ye-witches-fortune-cards-uspcc►
NOTE: "Ye" is pronounced "the". The 'y' in 'ye' is not the modern letter 'y' found in 'you', but a mis-translation of the old runic symbol equivalent to the modern letter pair 'th' found in words such as 'the'.
By Matt Probert
Member since March 02, 2012
I have adored playing cards since before I was seven years old, and was brought up on packs of Waddington's No 1. As a child I was fascinated by the pictures of the court cards.
Over the next fifty years I was seduced by the artwork in Piatnik's packs and became a collector of playing cards.
Seeking more information about various unidentified packs I discovered the World of Playing Cards website and became an enthusiastic contributor researching and documenting different packs of cards.
I describe my self as a playing card archaeologist, using detective work to identify and date obscure packs of cards discovered in old houses, flea markets and car boot sales.
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