Back in 2024, while printing the now-sold-out commercial edition of Austin Osman Spare’s remarkable tarot, we experimented with a bespoke version of the deck that captured some of the harder-to-reproduce characteristics of Spare’s original cards.

These included a matte finish more suitable for museum display – the commercial deck features a satin laminate – and the addition of gold edges, echoing those found on Spare’s own original working cards.

These modifications presented a considerable production challenge to the deck’s manufacturers, who were already operating somewhat beyond their usual parameters in reproducing Spare’s unique marginal system.

200 of these gold decks were printed, and we were delighted with the results.

However, due to the experimental process, some of the decks came off the press with tiny marks at their corners. These variations were an unanticipated result of the gilding process, and certainly do not detract from the overall beauty of the deck.

Rather than discarding the less-than-perfect decks entirely, we decided to make the full production range available to collectors, using a three-tier grading system drawn from the familiar booksellers’ terminology of Fine, Near Fine, Very Good.

All of the decks have been hand checked for quality.

The three grades are as follows:

Fine | 50 decks | £300

Near-fine | 75 decks | £200

Very Good | 75 decks | £100

All the Museum Edition decks are housed in a hand-made box featuring a gold AOS deboss, a ribbon, a revised booklet, and insert cards. The Fine tier contains three insert cards, Near-Fine contains two, and Very Good contains one. Each box contains a ‘sorcerer’ card beneath the deck.

Each deck will be shipped with a complimentary copy of the 2023 paperback edition of Lost Envoy, debossed and signed by Jonathan Allen – its editor, and the deck’s re-discoverer.

No similar bespoke edition of the cards will ever be produced, making this a unique opportunity to own a piece of tarot history.