1987 Albano-Waite

[Sulis]

Anyone know why this has such a horrible rating?

http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/rider-waite-clones.shtml

I think most here would agree that this rating is unfair.

Freddie

Solandia does the ratings personally and since she says in the write up of the Albano-Waite deck 'but the Albano-Waite Tarot is loudly coloured, sometimes garishly so', I'd guess that the low rating is because Solandia doesn't personally like the colour scheme of this deck much.

 

[Freddie]

Hi Sulis,

Thanks . There are very popular decks that don't speak to me so I can relate to her review. That is fair enough, but I must say her review of the Albano helped me decide to buy it. I just felt that 2 1/2 stars are a sign of a maybe 'awful deck'. I surmize that maybe she likes it, but has dubious feelings about it as well. I would not recomend it to people that are sensitive to colour and she is correct in that. I am glad the reviews are on here, because it gives us an idea of what to expect when we first pull our cards out of their box.

Thanks,

Freddie

 

[lark]

I recently got this deck and it is a real psychic hit in the head for me as far as color goes, I love it...seems I read best with decks rhat have bright colors but not dark saturated color or muted watercolor wash kind of color.
So am really enjoying this deck...also picked up a Golden Rider and that two is an interesting deck to work with color wise.

Wish I could get my hands on an older copy the scans put up show such a difference...lucky the Golden Rider is a Belgian printing...but not so lucky with the Albano Waite.

 

[Freddie]

I agree Lark. It's is the colouring that makes this deck work for me. I also enjoy the handwritten titles and white trance like backs.


Freddie

 

[Abrac]

Mine came today and honestly I'm a little disappointed. I LOVE the finish, but the printing leaves a lot to be desired. US Games is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get. Belgium certainly doesn't seem to mean better in this case. I guess I'll just keep waiting; maybe sometime before I die they'll rephotograph it and make something worth keeping.

 

[The crowned one]

Sigh. The ORIGINAL Albano-Waite (NOT USG) from 1968 is so much nicer. And the Sun is round. WHY USG saw fit to distort the cards to make them standard size I'll never know.... In the original they are that fraction squarer.

Frankie is (was ?) a man, according to Holly Voley, and I would LOVE to know what happened to him....

I use the '68 to read with. I have put some effort into tracking down the Gent...dead ends everyone.

 

[Welf]

Mine came today and honestly I'm a little disappointed. I LOVE the finish, but the printing leaves a lot to be desired. US Games is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get. Belgium certainly doesn't seem to mean better in this case. I guess I'll just keep waiting; maybe sometime before I die they'll rephotograph it and make something worth keeping.

I agree.. I have two copies, a Belgium one and an Italian one... The Belgium one has flimsier cardstock and the cards are thinner, though the images have much better clarity than the Italian one. Also, because of the less lamination I notice the surface is pitted through use which doesn't seem to happen with the Italian one because it's slightly more laminated...

Having said all that, the images on the both decks, more so on the Belgium one I have, are much clearer than the pictures posted by coredil. Maybe different printings by the same place have produced these differences? I love the decks, but am wanting to give one away, but not sure which one.. and yup... a 1968 version would be just perfect to have...

Welf

 

[Abrac]

Mine don't have the hazy veil like in coredil's pictures either. It probably is a print run thing.

I was hoping the Belgium version would be a little less muddy than the Italian one but to me they look like they were made from the same source. On some of the cards this works to good effect but overall it really is a downgrade from the original.

I've owned three of the originals at one time or another and ended up selling all of them so I don't really see myself getting another one. At this point I would settle for some decent scans.

 

[Freddie]

Hi All,

I found nine cards in my deck that I feel have an issue.

US Games fault ? :

Pentacles court cards - Missing deep purple colour and sky may be too muted.
The Queen is the best of the four.

Eight of Cups - Out of focus and slight measles.

Eight of swords - Same as 8 of cups, but not as bad though.

Frankie Albano fault ? :

Five of cups - Painted with wrong color background.

Knight of cups - Horse is almost same colour as sky

Page of cups - His tights same colour as sky, his boots same colour as floor.

I don't have any pits, bad lamination or cardstock issues. The other cards in the deck do not have any flaws that I can detect.

Freddie

 

[Kid Shamrock]

Reviving this long dead thread to add a comment on color differences between the '68 Albano and the USG reprints. I have a '68 Albano and two USG reprints (one standard size and one mini) both printed in Belgium. Surprisingly, the mini USG colors are a lot closer to the '68 than the standard size USG. For example the pentacle court card backgrounds are the correct purple color and are actually darker than on the '68. Unfortunately, all the cards of the mini are darker than they should be, which causes a lot of detail loss. On the Sun card, the lines of the wall are pretty much invisible and the wall just looks black. Same thing on Judgement, you can't tell the people are standing in coffins, the area around their feet is just black. I've never seen a copy of the '68 mini so I don't know if it has these loss of detail issues or not. Maybe someone with the '68 mini can clarify?