RWS, post war editions

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 12 Feb 2005, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Lillie	12 Feb 2005
Last night I was telling my husband about the old RWS decks that are appearing on ebay. and telling him also about the later editions from the 70s onward. I was probably boring him half to death, but he proved that he was actually listening by asking me the following question. The pamela A-D and the rose and lilys deck were before the 2nd world war. The Albano Waite, University books, US games etc. all came from the 70s on. What was there in between these two groups? To be honest it's a good question, there are 3 whole decades where I know nothing. I couldn't answer him. Can anyone enlighten me? (and him)

Cerulean	12 Feb 2005
1. Holly's tarot site shows in between the 1940s through to the 1960's some variations, but not as much until after that 1960's-1970s historical phenomen of new music/new age fashion for the twentieth century http://home.comcast.net/~vilex/ShipofFools.html 2. I think Stuart Kaplan of the U.S. Games company actually was one of the first in the early seventies to start marketing such small niche card interests. I'm looking at his talk about his collecting interest in tarot beginning with the third paragraph: http://www.lightworks.com/MonthlyAspectarian/1999/June/699-02.htm 3. My guess it wasn't a historically continuous interest for collectors, except for a few. I think Lon Duquette said when he bought a Thoth deck in a funky New Age shop in the seventies, he found an address and contact note for an esoteric group in the 1970's and there were only two or three living members of such interests--this was the Crowley Thoth deck, a derivative of the historical Golden Dawn.

tmgrl2	12 Feb 2005
Great thread...I just asked Rusty in the "What are you awaiting in the mail thread "...about various WCS decks. Very, very interesting. Will keep my eyes open now for "blue rose and lilies" deck. terri

Rusty Neon	12 Feb 2005
RWS clone circa 1935: Thompson-Leng Tarot, a.k.a., the British Tarot go to The Tarot Garden and type in: Thompson-Leng

Lillie	12 Feb 2005
Thanks for the information. I have something in common with S R Kaplan. My first deck was the 1JJ Swiss deck too! The Thompson Leng deck. I have seen this one on ebay, but never knew what it was called. It goes for pretty big money, so I suppose unless I'm very lucky I'll never see one. When I was a kid my doctor was called Dr. Leng. At 7 years old it seemed to be a combination of lung and the unpronouncable phlegme. I thought it was an icky sort of name. Such is life.

The RWS, post war editions thread was originally posted on 12 Feb 2005 in the Tarot Decks board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Tarot Decks, or read more archived threads.