U.S. Games Timeline

Abrac

Fulgour said:
Tarock No. 1 JJ
120 Wall Street
New York N.Y.
10005
Interesting...the 8-Ball didn't see that one coming. ;)

-fof
 

Abrac

I finally found a US Games deck sans copyright. :)

The address on the LWB is 468 Park Avenue South, and as luck would have it there is an inscription on the box with a date of 1977. Sill at 468 in '77, and at 38 East 32 in '83. This narrows it down a bit more.

After searching for one all this time, it's sort of a letdown to see what the deck is actually like. As Cerulean said, the overall color tones are much lighter than any of the other RWSs I have. But I'm glad to finally have one from a collecting standpoint - especially one with a handwritten date on it.

Cerulean said:
3. The only other different yellow-boxed Accurate Tones yellow-boxed 1971 Rider Waite I have was distributed by Weiser and the information follows--and this set also does not have a copyright on the cards.
Ironically, this is my favorite RWS deck of all. I even like it better than my blue-box Rider. The color tones are very slightly darker and the card stock noticeably thicker.

-fof

P.S. - There is an advertisement in the LWB that says if you want a catalog, send .25 lol
 

Alpha-Omega

Hmm I check the NY address on Google Earth and they are on the same block just diffrent buildings.

468 Park Avenue South, New York, N.Y. 10016; 38 East 32nd Street, New York, N.Y. 10016
 

Debra

IJJ Swiss from 1969

Fulgour said:
Tarock No. 1 JJ
120 Wall Street
New York N.Y.
10005


Now let's send out for :) Pizza!

See Fulgour's photo in post #18, above.

I do believe I've acquired one of these.

It appears that the writing on the Emperor's shield is different. The 1970 + version says "Fabrique de Cartes F. Muller & Cie." If I see the scans right, the 1969 version lacks the "F. Muller & Cie" part.

It also looks like there may not be the small numerals on one side of each pip to indicate which way is "up," as there is on my copyright 1974 AGMueller version.

I'm very curious about this. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&item=310145342761
 

Cerulean

I thought there were links to when U.S. Games started

http://www.upenn.edu/gazette/0397/collector_story.html

1968 - while in Europe on business, Kaplan visited the Nuremberg Toy Fair, in hopes of finding something new for his children. Instead, he found something old for himself. Kaplan purchased an antique Tarot deck, the 1JJ, published in Switzerland by Mueller & Cie


1968-70 - had it reproduced, and sold 100 copies to Brentano's, the New York-based bookstore chain. Within a year he had sold 200,000 .
Following his graduation from Wharton, Kaplan had been working on Wall Street, managing several manufacturing and mining companies for Standard Industries, Inc. The Nuremberg Tarot find changed his life. He soon founded U.S. Games Systems, of which he is still chairman of the board.

1970 - the company began producing the Rider-Waite Tarot, a deck that, since then, has sold more than six million copies worldwide.

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My thinking is because there are internet articles regarding this by now, it might have be a little easier to gather a bit more in this thread. The above is general information to reference when researching addresses and editions.

At least this might be a hopeful/helpful start if it's not on someone else's timeline.

Best

Cerulean
 

Debra

Thank you both! I haven't quite mastered the "search" function here. I'll post more when the deck comes. :heart: