1971 RWS - AG Muller

Side by side I can tell blue boxes apart if they are
Waddingtons or not (issued through Rider-Muller),
because the World's wreath is a different shade.
Easiest just to see if it's on the side of the box.

Your "Fool" probably has a creamy face, whereas
earlier editions had a blushing textured Fool card.

Lots of ways to tell these apart, hard to explain...
yellow boxes are so hopelessly complex it's nutty.

Ahh...you have the blue box Rider. As Sulis said, these show up on eBay fairly often.

Another option might be one in a yellow box published by Samuel Weiser, Inc. This deck matches the blue box very closely. It shows up on eBay once in a while, and it is easy to identify among the plethora of RWS decks because of its publisher.

Probably the most readily-accessible is the typical US Games RWS in the yellow box. Things to look for: ® after "The Rider Tarot Deck®" on front of box; Bar code on bottom of box; Printed in Switzerland on back of box (NOT printed in Italy or China); Stamford, CT address on box and in LWB. These are fairly common and the quality is as good or maybe even slightly better than the blue box. This version does have copyrights on the cards though, whereas the Weiser does not.

Edit To Add: The US Games deck above has a little bit more lamination than either the blue box or the Weiser which might make it a better candidate for taking out and about if that is your intention.

Well, thanks to everyones suggestions I am now the proud owner of a second blue box RWS, however, this is different to the first one I had.

The first one (which said this edition 1972) is just one box with a tab top and writing on the back etc. The second deck I just bought is a two part box, the bottom part is just plain white with nothing written on it, also the lwb does not say "this edition 1972" and has adverts for books and a "travellers edition" of the rws which is a minature version. It is strange to me now that these are both blue boxes, with the world dancer on the front, yet differet. I notice that the printers of the decks are different.

Would anyone know which was the earliest printing of the two printers....

Blue box one printers: Flarepath printers ltd

Blue box two (2 part box): Drydens Printers ltd

Any help would be appreciated, I am just really curious...

Love Fluffy
x

LWBs that mention the "Traveller's Tarot" are from
the nearly last editions of the no-copyright editions.

I have two copies of the Traveller's Tarot and they
are very neat sets, though not "half-sized" like the
description. They're slightly bigger, in the mini size.

The printer of all of these decks is AGMuller but the
LWBs are by different printers. A delightful curiosity.

The oldest Blue Box editions mention "Waddingtons"
on the side of the two-piece box, and after that...
look for a change in the wreath colour, before they
finally end up vanishing altogether. 1971-2 to 197??

The last editions were marked with the copyright
and the blue is very bright. Thus the involvement of
USGames began a steady decline in previous quality.
Colour, cardstock, image quality, and the packaging,
everything was nickel and dimed to death by greed.

*

Definition Cut ALL costs to spend very little money.
To drain or destroy bit by bit, especially financially:
nickel-and-dimed the project to death.

thank you so much Fulgour for that information, I expected that the new one would be more recent. This can be my away day deck to take wherever. I will check out the threads on the lwb.

That is why I wanted an edition the same as my first one because I didn't want the pictures degraded at allm- i guess i will have to keep my eye out for a waddingtons box then i will have all three! I truly love the artwork and colourings used in these early editions, although i have read that Pamela did not choose the colous - is this true?

Thanks!

love Fluffy
x

Pamela Colman Smith did, without question, colour her designs,
though there seems to be a concerted effort to say otherwise.

Her exact words, in the letter attached below, on the subject:

"I will send you a pack (printed in colour by lithography)
(probably very badly!)"

But if it makes some people happy to read this as saying
the designs were actually sketches what can anyone do?

I say YES her designs were done, complete with colours,
and then they were sent to be printed, also in colour...

We can see by looking at the cards that they are artistic
in every sense, and not a slap dash splash job by helpers.

She did say of the items she was offering to Steiglitz that
"They are careful & nice colour." Why is that ignored then?

Maybe for the same reason that she is offering the designs
as her personal property for sale in America, giving the lie
to the nonsense about it having been a "work for hire" job,
but so many people insist it was truly the work of AEWaite.

I'm surprised that anybody doubts the fact that Pamela Colman Smith coloured her cards. A E Waite tells us that she did this in his book, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot:-

"The Tarot cards which are issued with the small edition of the present work, that is to say, with the Key to the Tarot, have been drawn and coloured by Miss Pamela Colman Smith, and will, I think, be regarded as very striking and beautiful, in their design alike and execution"

(page 67 in my edition of this book).

It is clear from Pamela Colman Smith's letter that she hadn't actually seen the printed cards when she wrote it, but Waite's book implies that not only did she colour the cards in, but that the printed version reproduces her colouring accurately.

Post #1

Hello EarthBoy! Welcome to Aeclectic Tarot!

EarthBoy said:

I'm surprised that anybody doubts the fact that Pamela Colman Smith coloured her cards. A E Waite tells us that she did this in his book, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot:-

"The Tarot cards which are issued with the small edition of the present work, that is to say, with the Key to the Tarot, have been drawn and coloured by Miss Pamela Colman Smith, and will, I think, be regarded as very striking and beautiful, in their design alike and execution"

(page 67 in my edition of this book).

It is clear from Pamela Colman Smith's letter that she hadn't actually seen the printed cards when she wrote it, but Waite's book implies that not only did she colour the cards in, but that the printed version reproduces her colouring accurately.

Click to expand...

Interesting points EarthBoy. Does anyone know if Jensen's book addresses this?

I just bought a Rider-Waite on ebay, but I don't know much about it.

It's a US Games printed in Switzerland by Muller & CIE, with the yellow box with Magician on it. The deck seems to be in excellent shape, still on its original seal and with the instructions booklet.

Does anyone know approximately the time line for RWS decks printed in Belgium, Switzerland and Italy?

Is there much difference between RWS decks printed in Belgium and Switzerland?