Weiser - Crowley Thoth collection

Check out these amazing Crowley / Harris Thoth items that were just made available from Weiser Antiquarian Books.

http://www.weiserantiquarian.com/catalog/

The original typed manuscript of the Book of Thoth!
First editions of the Book of Thoth
Rough sketches of some of the Thoth tarot cards
Letters to/from Crowley and Harris
Original plates used to print the cards in the Book of Thoth

Many of the items have already been sold, but a few are still available (at this posting).

I must gush and say that I was able to order the 'The Lovers' and 'The Ace of Swords' cards from the 1943 test printing of the Thoth Deck! I will certainly post more info here after I receive them.

Yay!

Lucky you!

What a great pair of cards to have!

Interesting stuff.

But why are they selling these?

Yes i was just looking at another thread that had the entire Weiser test printings shown, i think it was posted by Adam.

What would be the cost of those two printings for someone to buy, i should imagine alot of cash.

Cool. You got both the Lovers and the card depicting intercourse. You're lucky Jimmy Page didn't beat you to it.

Congratulations Strange2!!! very nice indeed

I have received "The Lovers" and "Ace of Swords" cards from the first test printing of the Thoth deck, and I must say I am thrilled. They are in very good condition. The colors are deep and vivid, particularly on the Ace of Swords.

A description from the catalogue:
http://www.weiserantiquarian.com/catalogtwenty/

"Aleister Crowley, & Frieda Harris, Two Tarot Cards - 'The Lovers' and 'The Ace of Swords,' from the 1943 test printing of the Thoth Deck. [London]: NP, circa 1943. Two 5 1/4" x 3 1/2" color-printed sample cards: one of 'The Lovers,' and one of 'The Ace of Swords.' In 1943 Crowley had a series of collotype printing blocks made to reproduce in color the images of seven individual tarot cards plus the design that he intended to have printed on the reverse side of each card. The plates were primarily struck so that high-quality color prints could be made to tip into his forthcoming The Book of Thoth, however he also took advantage of their availability to have a small test run of those cards made, for distribution to friends and acquaintances who might be persuaded to help finance the full printing of the pack. These are two of that test run. Each with the Rose Cross design on the back. Very unusual, and the true first printing of one of the most famous tarot decks."

Perhaps Crowley and/or Harris handled these 2 cards at one time!

It appears the cards may be composed of 2 pieces of high quality paper bonded together, but I'm not sure. Not as heavy as a traditional card stock.

The cards are slightly smaller than the cards found in the commercial large versions of the deck (which are 140 x 95 mm).

The Lovers: 135 x 90 mm, 5 5/16 x 3 1/2 in.

Ace of Swords: 134 x 90 mm, 5 1/4 x 3 1/2 in.

The grey frame on the Ace of Swords has an additional light grey unbroken line on the outer border, which is not found in other versions of the deck.

The back of the cards has an additional full row at the bottom of the card that does not appear in commercial versions of the deck. This row does not contain the Wand, Cup, Sword, Disk designs within each section, but just contains the colors for each section (red for Wands, blue for Cups, gold for Swords, green for disks). There is also a partial row visible at the bottom, on the right, and at the top of the card.

I find the colors on the Back design of these prototype cards to be more vivid than in commercial versions of the cards, particularly the green disk sections and the blue cup sections.

I have attached scans of the cards, front and back.

I have also posted higher resolution scans on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21201893@N00/sets/72157601839875788


My joy is to see your joy!

what a coup

thanks for the scans and the detailed descriptions

keep them safe

The borders are as they are in the BoT....

Which has never been done on a deck. That I know of (except probably the 2 colour one.)

Look at the circle at the top, where the number is. It is always an oval.
The suit name/Trumps behind the title, the way it slopes backward, and how it is tall.
Never done like that either.

Wow!

You can also see that extra grey border in the BoT, by the way.