I've always been an Arthurian fan, and I've been a Matthews fan ever since I first found their books, at least 20 years ago. I have the black-bordered version of this deck and love it! I also have the book
Hallowquest and the Arthurian Tarot Course, the latter of which I Finally! found, only to have the former shipped off to storage...
Well, now I can get with the course, which I had planned to start several years ago.
I saw the white-bordered version, and whether or not the colors are brighter, it seems that the white borders make the pictures recede in comparison with the black borders. I think black borders are wonderful; they make the pictures pop out. The one thing I never agreed with in this deck, though, is the making of the border into an arch shape. I'm much more likely to enter a card when the framework is unobtrusive, and ordinary rectangular borders, i.e. those that follow the edge of the card, are unobtrusive. Those arches are Not! If anything, they feel limiting rather than opening onto the scene. I honestly wished that instead of merely changing the color of the border, they had just eliminated the arch!
That said, I really get into the scenes in this deck. That's probably one reason I'd like to see more of the scenes! Get rid of the arches that cut off parts of the scene! Just make a little black border, following the edge of the card, and right to the edge eliminating the white around the edge. I'd love that.
Those of you who have met the Matthewses, you have my envy. You very lucky people. They were to be the guests, years ago, of a conference that I went to every year, only the last one held was the one before they were to appear. Sigh...