Interest Roger Zelazny's Nine Princes in Amber Custom Tarot Cards

Jintosh

Jintosh

Master Member
RPF PREMIUM MEMBER
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I grew up in the eighties with the Nine Princes in Amber series of books. I really liked the idea of the TRUMPS Tarot cards. It's a prop from a book, instead of TV or movie. And this wouldn't be considered a major prop at that.
There is a French Tarot deck based on the books, but even when it was on eBay, it was listed for $500. And now I don't even see that one on eBay anymore.

I want to have some scans of the French cards and make some changes like translate the French into English. If anyone has the French deck and can give or sell me some high rez scans, I would really appreciate it. The Major Arcana are very well done and very ornate. But the Minor Arcana are very simple. The other change I plan to make is to get some more ornate Minor Arcana and make a complete deck out of the two combined decks.

If you can provide me with high rez scans, I can give you a completed deck when I have it printed.
 
I now have low rez pictures of all the Major Arcana.

I would still like High Rez images of the original cards if anyone knows a source.
 
Incredible books, I remember reading these and always thought they would make a great movie series. Interested in your project and will be following. I didn’t know that a deck had been produced.
 
Yes, I think the deck will be cool. The low rez pics I got off the internet were scanned by someone else, so I can use them for myself, but not sell them. Only if I can scan the originals, or get someone to scan the originals and let me use them would I be able to do a run.

And there's probably not too many people that would want a deck anyway. This is just a personal prop I want. :)
 
collection.jpg

Here's some of the key Characters of Amber. I've ordered 2 decks with possible choices of the Minor Arcana. I want to pick the best Minor Arcana to go with the style of design in THESE cards. It will not be a perfect match no matter which second deck I choose, but they should still be better than the basic pips that originally came with the Amber deck.

Also, the original French Amber deck used "coins" instead of pentacles, even though Fiona has a pentacle. None of the other cards in the French deck have pentacles. But in the BOOKS, it definitely says that the cards have Pentacles. I will be changing any coins into pentacles in my Custom deck.
 
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Cool project. I did not know decks were made. I remember that the book "Visual Guide to Castle Amber" that came out in the '80s had some trump images of the major characters, especially because they blatantly used Timothy Dalton's face for Corwin. That always cracked me up.

latest?cb=20080929220346.jpg
 
ARKM said:
Cool project. I did not know decks were made. I remember that the visual guide to castle amber that came out in the '80s had some trump images of the major characters, especially because they blatantly used Timothy Dalton's face for Corwin. That always cracked me up.

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net...Corwin2.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20080929220346
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Yep. That's interesting. Also, If you search Pinterest, there's several variations of home made tarot for Amber. But after my research, I have found only the one official Amber tarot deck. Some web pages were in French, and I couldn't read the French, so I may be missing out on some decks that are available. If someone can track down a deck for me and I end up being able to buy it, you can still get a copy of my custom deck when it's done. I will reward you for doing the legwork.

The French name is TAROT D'AMBRE.
 
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Update.

I finished translating all the French to English on the Major Arcana. Here's the same selection as before with English titles.
Now I'm just waiting on the Minor Arcana to arrive in the mail.
 
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Panaflex said:
Nice work! Looking forward to your progress with this.
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Thanks ! It's still a fun personal project, but I still wish I could have gotten the higher resolution scans of an actual deck.
Some of these cards are higher resolution than others, and since some of the scans came from different places, I'll have to adjust the color a bit.
After the first post, I got a better scan of Julian, but need to adjust the color.

As for the minor Arcana, 2 - 10 cards, I made a cutout of the frame that surrounds each of the French cards, and will put the pictures from the new deck in the old frame to give it a more consistent look. They'll look like they're from the same deck as much as possible.
 
I tracked down a possible French Tarot D'Ambre deck, but the website is in French, and when I try to register for an account to make an offer for the deck, it says my "postal code" (English translation) is invalid.

Is there someone in France that might be able to help me out? That you could register and try to make an offer on the deck ?
PM if you can help.
 
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collection 3.jpg

I did a few of the Minor Arcana from my chosen second deck. The top six cards are from the Amber Tarot and the bottom six are from the deck I got off eBay. Overall, I feel this deck is likely the best choice to match the Ambre Tarot deck.
 
After some wrangling and cash exchange, I have an actual French Amber Deck on it's way to me from Europe.
Now I'll have high rez scans to work with !! Woo Hoo !!
 
Jintosh said:
Yes, I think the deck will be cool. The low rez pics I got off the internet were scanned by someone else, so I can use them for myself, but not sell them. Only if I can scan the originals, or get someone to scan the originals and let me use them would I be able to do a run.

And there's probably not too many people that would want a deck anyway. This is just a personal prop I want. :)
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I want it, I've been looking for it for a very long time. It is also known as "Ambre Le Tarot".
 
Ronald Ashman said:
Is this still happening? I just found this site and am re-reading "The Great Book of Amber". I am really interested in getting this.
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I'm going to try Zazzle. If they recognize that these are Copyrighted images, they might not print the Tarot Deck.

If they will print them, then the price depends on how many decks I order.
 
Oh man, I remember when we did that whole transaction with the guy in Belgium and all, glad it worked, I hope you manage to finish that project :)
 

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