Llewellyn or Weiser Thoth? Which is more common?

Embla

I have the Llewellyn Thoth printed in USA around 1969/70, and I absolutely adore it. The images are a little blurry, perhaps due to bad printing quality or age related fading and the borders are different shades of blue, but for me this deck is perfect!

I realize that there are three early editions of this deck outthere, the Llewellyn printed in Hong Kong, the Llewellyn printed in the US plus the Weiser-edition. From what I gather the Llewellyn US-edition is the most common, followed by the Weiser-edition, and that the Hong-Kong edition is most difficult to find? Am I correct? Can anybody fill me in on this?

I tried to do a search on this subject but didn´t find any threads, if anybody has a suggestion for one, please lead me right!
 

gregory

There are heaps of threads.

here and here and - here and here - to name but a few. Some include links to others. I have lost count. There is a Thoth subforum.....

More to the point, there is a page on tarotgarden showing all the editions there have been, and their provenance.

Difficulty in finding/cost - e-bay is the most reliable. Prices vary hugely; I just bought a greenie (see the threads !) for less than $10. Someone else paid $91 for one of the two slightly earlier ones a couple of days before. Watch and don't get ripped off. Most of the various editions turn up there quite regularly. Read the description carefully !
 

Lillie

I got a Weiser one for £6, but I have seen them go for far more.
 

fyreflye

*embla* said:
I realize that there are three early editions of this deck outthere, the Llewellyn printed in Hong Kong, the Llewellyn printed in the US plus the Weiser-edition. From what I gather the Llewellyn US-edition is the most common, followed by the Weiser-edition, and that the Hong-Kong edition is most difficult to find? Am I correct? Can anybody fill me in on this?

I have all three of these editions and in my experience your general impressions are correct. The Weiser and Llewellyn USA editions of the decks that I have are identical in every way. The Hong Kong Llewellyn is missing the "8" on the 8 of Cups, the card stock is unlaminated cardboard, and on the whole is a poorer copy. I recently picked up the Hong Kong Llewellyn with an eBay Buy It Now for slightly less than $60 USD. The other two were less than $40 USD but that was more than a year ago and I'ver seen the prices double since then. There are at least two earlier B & W bootleg editions based on Crowley's 1944 book. The deck with the highest overall print quality is the 1986 A G Muller edition.
 

Abrac

*embla* said:
From what I gather the Llewellyn US-edition is the most common, followed by the Weiser-edition, and that the Hong-Kong edition is most difficult to find? Am I correct?
I visit eBay all the time, and to be honest, I have seen all three in about equal amounts. I'm not a statistician, but from a laymans point of view, there doesn't seem to be much difference.

Abrac
 

Embla

Thank you so much for your input on these editions and for the links to all those threads! I will go study... Fyreflye, you say the number 8 is missing from the Hong Kong edition, which is very interesting because I have the US edition and no 8 on the 8 of cups.
 

gregory

I have to say that I have never met one printed in HK..... the colour of the printing on the box helps ID it, too..... You do have a two part box ?

Also - for that edition:

There are two misprints in at least one of the Llewellyn editions: 1) The number "8" is missing from the top of the "8 of Cups" card. 2) The illustration for the "Ace of Pentacles" card is printed upside-down.
- TG site. Whether this is the Hong Kong or US one....or if one has one misprint and the other has both.... I only have a White Box A and 2 greenies, one with no box. (of these - also a selection of USG and Mullers...)
 

Dean

*embla* said:
you say the number 8 is missing from the Hong Kong edition, which is very interesting because I have the US edition and no 8 on
the 8 of cups.

I also have the Llewellyn usa edition with the number eight missing on the cups, i have noticed alot of mistakes printed on this particular deck and have listed them down somewhere on another thread. As for comparing my Llewellyn 1970 edition with the Hong Kong one i haven't been able to see which of these were the better prints.
 

fyreflye

Dean said:
I also have the Llewellyn usa edition with the number eight missing on the cups, i have noticed alot of mistakes printed on this particular deck and have listed them down somewhere on another thread. As for comparing my Llewellyn 1970 edition with the Hong Kong one i haven't been able to see which of these were the better prints.

Rusty Neon once wrote me that the "8" on the 8 of Cups was missing from his Llewellyn USA edition, too; which leads me to believe that Llewellyn must have issued a corrected edition - the one I have - at a later date. My own guess is that the correct timeline is: Llewellyn HK (missing "8") -> Llewellyn USA (missing "8") -> Llewellyn USA (corrected)/Weiser USA. Weiser and Llewellyn have claimed that they issued the last two editions around the same time, but no one has done any serious research to clarify any of this. I wouldn't take too seriously any of the proposed timelines (including mine :)) until the unlikely event that some tarot historian like K Frank Jensen decides to look into it.
 

Dean

Hi fyreflye

cheers for that info as i wanted to know if the Llewellyns Hong Kong edition was a better remake of the usa deck, my deck had alot of mistakes. All i know of the Hong Kong edition is that the two part slip box was made smaller is this right, my box looks quite big in size.: