Just like the "Joker of the Month" in the Jokers section we will select a "Deck of the Month" from all the decks that we could add to our collection during that month. It will be what we consider our best find. We've started this section in April 2007 and without any doubt we can say here that over the years there will be antique, vintage and modern decks shown on these pages. Age, design and value of the chosen decks may be very different each time.

April 2025

"You haven't shown many fortune telling decks here, although you have had several more. In fact the only one you showed here was "Le Petit Oracle des Dames" in August 2016. So, about time to show another one here and now and I say this is the perfect one..... capisce!"

Okay!
I won this deck in an auction of a part of the collection of Chris Rayner, where it was offered as Comic Fortune Telling Cards. I had never seen the deck before, but was intrigued and attracted by the combination of the simplicity of printing (black and red only), the designs on the cards and the dating of c1863. As I hadn't thought that the deck would be that old, I decided to research this date. There are not many references to be found, but it seems that auction houses that have had the deck on offer (Potter&Potter, Reeman Dansie and Dominic Winter) all agreed to use this date.
On the WOPC site there are 2 dates to be found. The deck is shown as part of the Strangers' Hall museum collection, where it is dated by the museum as 1870's, but also in a post by a well respected UK collector, where it is dated as c1850. On the WOPC site that same collector also shows a Q&A deck, which was printed only in red and black too and was almost certainly designed by the same artist. He dates this deck as c1850 and refers to Michael Goodall's "Minor British Playing Card Makers of the Nineteenth Century, vol. 5" (1996). Although published on the WOPC site on the same day, there's no reference to Goodall in his post of the Comic Fortune Telling deck. But I guess that this date was also based on Michael Goodall's publication. I don't know this publication, but Michael Goodall's research was usually reliable. However, it is possible that after 1996 new information has been found, which has led to a different dating.

The manufacturer of this deck is Joseph Reynolds & Sons. Although this name is nowhere to be found on any of the cards in this deck, the name appears on the ace of spades in the Q&A deck and the similarities with this deck are obvious. I don't think that the deck was published in a box. No box has been offered in the auctions, so I guess that a wrapper was used to keep the publication as cheap as possible for the public. Possibly the Reynolds name was on the wrapper.

A humorous approach to serious fortune telling. 19th century humor: my personal fav is the 4 of clubs (don't forget to click the ace) but I'm sure you'll find yours too.

(images at 150% to make reading the captions/fortunes easier)

CLICK THE ACE TO SEE THE PIPS OF THAT SUIT.