Visconti Blues (color blue meanie bugaboos)
Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 01 Jan 2005, and now archived in the Forum Library.
| Cerulean |
01 Jan 2005 |
|
For collection and other reasons, I have various Pierpont Morgan color reproductions as published in books, decks and somewhere, even a calendar.
I still recommend the Del Negro version (all cards online here:)
http://www.gambler.ru/sukhty/decks05/d02046/d02046.htm
My collection ranges from a museum-quality catalog from Pinateca Brera in Italian to the Dummett mini-book to recreated decks from Isa Donelli and Lo Scarabeo...and my first Visconti was a used copy of the U.S. Games version...I have now four U.S. Games reprints:
- from the first 500 printing (1975)
- luxery edition U.S. Games/Monumenta Longbardica (1974)
- limited edition 1000 printing (1975)
- mass-market version now sold for about $40.00 (1998 is when I bought it).
The 'best' printing of the above looks like the less-expensive Dal Negro printing you can buy at Alidastore.com or Tarot Garden.com.
I only have one Il Menghello printing of the Visconti from someone who bought theirs from the Milanese press and store years ago (1994). The printing of the cards overall rivals the Dal Negro version, although the card stock is lighter and has a matte finish that glows softly in different lights...it's cartoony devil and tower isn't online and not in the Dal Negro edition, thank goodness.
But the blues and silvery and gold tones in ALL these different versions all vary darker and lighter card by card...not consistently either. I could tell you that for the earliest 1974 U.S. Games page of cups would be more a turquoise in the grass and midnight rather than navy in the cloak highlights. But I have a suspicion that there might be just as many variations in the 1974 printings as there is in the different publishers of the Visconti Sforzas over the years. The 1974 Monumenta Longbardica-U.S. Games for instance has a greener, darker cast in the grass and yet a similar midnight in the cloak compared to the limited edition 500 edition of U.S. Games with the pale turquoise grass and midnight blue highlights in the page of cups.
I don't mind that all the blues are different in the U.S. Games editions, although I'm slightly dismayed as I look at the two books: Michael Dummett's 1986 paperback on the Visconti cards is succint and beautiful and the cards are not all consistently darker or brighter than my more recent Pinateca di Brera catalogue printing (1999) of the Pierpont Morgan.
Every card I pull from the various decks or open in the different books look different in all the decks and books...although consistently, the Michael Dummet's book is the best quality color reproduction and text information to me for a lower cost in the used books area (abebooks.com).
For the shiniest re-creation, I like the Visconti Gold (2002) gilded edition from Lo Scarabeo in terms of reading and feeling. I plan to dig out my old calendar and see if there's more a feeling of luxery and match in any of the above books and decks...I do have the older 2000 Visconti Gold deck from Lo Scarabeo that is not distributed now by most retailers--this one only has the LWB and cards with the upside-down Il Bon Droyt on some cards. I don't think of it as rare, just an amusing blip that actually also appeared in an English language book of tarot cards with some irritating-to-me attributions.
My favorite printing of the old cards--inconsistently, probably--is the oldest U.S. Games printing with the line drawings of the Devil and Tower and Knight of Coins...the paper booklet and thin cardboard stock is light and strong. To me, the matte finish seems old and yet beautifully like the older Il Menghello..in this version, there are no Scapini recreated cards either...
Ah, kooky color blues!
Cerulean
|
The Visconti Blues (color blue meanie bugaboos) thread was originally posted on 01 Jan 2005 in the Talking Tarot board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Talking Tarot, or read more archived threads.
|
