Deck: The Bluebird Lenormand
Publisher: US Games Systems, Inc
Writer: Stuart R. Kaplan
Artist: Various historical artists, artwork is all in the creative commons
Overall Rating: 5/10
Cardstock: The cardstock is fairly standard, like what you’d expect from a similar pack of poker cards. Easy to riffle shuffle, neither too matte nor too slick.
Artwork: The artwork is in an illustration style with muted colors to mimic the paintings that are paired with each person card. All the paintings are from the 1700s I believe, and they’re all portraits of white people as one might expect, but the Lady and Gentleman cards do have two options, one older and one younger. One interesting thing about these cards is that they also each feature a little snippet of poetry, which hints at the meaning of the card.
Book: This deck has a fairly standard Little White Booklet, with a list of keywords for each card, and a few descriptions of spreads. The booklet also includes a short biography of Mademoiselle Lenormand, who created this system in the late 1700s.
Likes: I like the little bits of poetry and the illustrations are well done, but this deck doesn’t really draw me in – I don’t find myself reaching for it very often.
Dislikes: I’m not sure the portraits really add much beyond a certain historical flair. Between the portraits and in-set cards and the poetry, half the card face is taken up with things other than the illustrations, and to me it looks a bit cluttered and makes it a little harder to focus on the reading.
Overall Recommendation
While this deck doesn’t particularly speak to me, I imagine for people who like in-set cards or who are coming from a cartomancy system that uses poker cards, this would be an excellent deck to learn on. I was already familiar with the system before I bought it, and I bought it more as a historical curiosity (as it’s a reprinted vintage deck). I do tend to use this one as my second deck when I’m using a spread with Houses, though, because of the clear card titles I can let peek out from under the primary deck.