200 £ for a Sheridan deck!

Adam McLean

Do any of the editions of the Alfred Douglas book 'Tarot'
include coloured versions of the Sheridan cards ?

In the edition I have, these are in the form of line drawings.

Adam McLean
 

gregory

No, the book has never had anything but the b/w line drawings.
 

coredil

two colored cards

I have a hardcover copy of Douglas Book, probably from 1972 (London, Victor Gollancz LTD)
It has the b&w line drawings of Sheridan pictures.
The pictures are bigger than the one you can find in the Penguin Books paperback edition.

The dustcover has two colored cards: The Fool and The Papess
 

Adam McLean

Were the David Sheridan cards originally conceived as line illustrations and later coloured to be issued as actual cards?

The cards were published in 1972 by Mandragora Press, London and the Alfred Douglas book on the Tarot with the line illustrations was also issued in 1972 by Victor Gollancz, London.

Which came first ? The line drawings or the full coloured cards ?

If the line drawings came first and were the original conception, it may be that the colouring was not done by Sheridan himself, but by a graphics designer involved in the publication of the cards.

Does anyone have any information on this point ?

Thanks,

Adam McLean
 

Lillie

This is curious.

I have a first edition hardback book.
The cards on it are wrong.
I have compared with mine and with scans on the net.
The fool has far more colour detail on the book cover.
The priestess even has a little shading that does not appear on the cards.

At the back of the book it says that the cards are availaboe from 'Moralice (london) ltd.'
Which is not Mandragora.

Also, on my deck, the postcode for Mandragoras address is long.
It is one of the full postcodes and different from the shorter geographical codes that were used in London before.
I believe that in London full postcodes were not introduced until at least 73, possibly even 74.
That would therefore date my deck to around 74.

Ok, so my deck seems to be a different backed, none sticky, oddball deck, possible a late version.
So, what has everyone else got for their postcodes?

My guess is that they were planned together, the deck was obviously drawn, as otherwise it could not have appeared in the book.
However, I think it was coloured after the book was done, which is why the cover pics are different from the cards. And therefore on sale a little after the book.
When, exactly I do not know. But unless I can find one without the long post code, I am going to start believing it was not finished and on sale until 73 or 74.

The copyright date could, of course, refer to the pictures in the book, rather than the date the deck went on sale.
 

gregory

Adam McLean said:
Were the David Sheridan cards originally conceived as line illustrations and later coloured to be issued as actual cards?

The cards were published in 1972 by Mandragora Press, London and the Alfred Douglas book on the Tarot with the line illustrations was also issued in 1972 by Victor Gollancz, London.

Which came first ? The line drawings or the full coloured cards ?

If the line drawings came first and were the original conception, it may be that the colouring was not done by Sheridan himself, but by a graphics designer involved in the publication of the cards.

Does anyone have any information on this point ?
I don’t think the cards were coloured later. The notes that come with the deck (as well as the box itself) say that the art work is copyright by David Sheridan and the notes by Alfred Douglas, and the copyright dates are the same (1972) for both. Just as the book refers readers to the deck and its publisher, the notes refer to the book, and give its details (the original, published by Gollancz in the UK and Taplinger in the US. The cover of the Penguin edition I have has the cards coloured in in mighty strange colours compared to the originals. And the deck is actually generally called the Sheridan Douglas too; it looks to me far more like a co-operative venture, and the book was simply in black and white for financial reasons. The back of my copy of the book says that the illustrations are “David Sheridan’s original drawings…..” rather than cards…. And there are many other card illustrations in the book; none is in colour.

Lillie - my cards are dated 1972, were not bought long after that and have EC4 as the postcode on the box and the notes; there is no mention of Moralice (whoever they may be.) My book is a 1973 Penguin reprint - and I bought it that year; I actually wrote the date in it - and it ISN'T the first edition ! - it has no mention of Moralice either. All the postcodes in the back for suppliers are old style. The cards are completely flat with no shading AT ALL. I cannot understand how your book can be a first edition if it has a new LONDON postcode.... - the new codes outside London were issued before those in the capital. It all started in the 60s though, Norwich was first in 1959 (lucky them) and everywhere in the country was covered by 1974 - which 2 years after the book and deck came out.... so:
Lillie said:
But unless I can find one without the long post code, I am going to start believing it was not finished and on sale until 73 or 74.
- you've found one - and not even a first edition !!! And my card database says I bought the cards "about 1972"...... (which is earlier than I said before but that was from memory; I didn't care enough to look it up then !)
 

truelighth

I absolutely love the Sheridan-Douglas! It feels so 70's to me. And I really like the simplicity of the images really combined with the bold colors.

For Lillie's information: my deck also has the blue/purple backs and was published by Mandragora. The cards are indeed very thick and so hard to shuffle. And perhaps a bit sticky indeed. I have to check out the Sun card still.

Oh yes, and for those who are interested, there is actually also a bootleg copy of this deck around. In 1991 a Polish company took the deck, gave it new colors (also bright, but very different) and published this. This Polish Sheridan-Douglas is a lot smaller then the normal one, about twice the size. I think the backs on that deck are different though. The colors surely are. If I remember correctly, for instance, all the swords have mostly purple in them. And the Star card is also mostly purple. I think they used even less colors for this one. Still, it is an interesting one.
 

Lillie

Thank you both for the info.

I don't think I put myself across properly in my last post.
I was eating pixzza as I typed.

The book is a first edition Gollanz hard back.
At the back of the book it says;
Details of the new Tarot pack drawn by David Sheridan, which illustrate this book, can be obtained from;

Moralice (London) Ltd.,
171 Cromwell Road,
London, S.W.5.

That and all other addresses in the book are the short, old style. This would tie in with the book being from 72.

The deck, and it's box and leaflet have the following address.

Mandragora Press
31 St. Martins Lane
London
WC2N 4EY.

This is the long postcode I was talking about, and shows that this deck (my edition, not the Sheridan in general) was published sometime after the introduction of the long postcodes. 74, I think. Though I agree that Norwich was done much earlier, as was Croydon, as tests for the system.

Gregory, If you say that you got yours in 72 that is good enough for me. That proves I was wrong, and the deck was out at the same time as the book.
And the short postcode shows that too.

however, your short postcode means that at the time yours was publshed Mandragora press was not at St Martins Lane.

EC4 is not WC2.

Is your address in Fleet st?

So, what I was saying was that the book is a first edition from 72, but the deck seems much later.

The sun.
The funny coloured sun in my deck is not the sun card, but the sun in the fool card.
The one at the top of the card, In mine it is yellow. In others on the net it is orange.

My deck. Yes, it sounds different from all the others I have heard about.
It is not sticky, but shuffles very smoothly
The backs are mottled purple/white
The cards measure 6.5 x 11.7cm.
The whole deck is about 3 cm thick. Which is quite thick now that I compare it with other decks.

However, I don't think it is polish.
All the box and the leaflet are in english, as are the cards themselves.

Funny old deck. I'm rather fond of it.
 

truelighth

Lillie said:
My deck. Yes, it sounds different from all the others I have heard about.
It is not sticky, but shuffles very smoothly
The backs are mottled purple/white
The cards measure 6.5 x 11.7cm.
The whole deck is about 3 cm thick. Which is quite thick now that I compare it with other decks.

However, I don't think it is polish.

No, that doesn't sound like the Polish one. The Polish cards are WAY smaller then that and very thin in comparison. Very interesting though. I never knew there would be more versions of the Sheridan-Douglas. Seems you got a little mystery there :)
 

Adam McLean

The Polish book is in Polish. I have a copy. The drawings of the cards have the titles in Polish. There are three coloured images of cards on the back cover - Strength, the Hanged man and Death. The colours are totally different from those in the original Sheridan Deck, but are in the same style, that is, the colour is block graphic colour with no modelling.

Regarding this block colour we can see this as used in an insensitive way in the Death card from original Sheridan Deck. Here the background is a dark blue, but this covers the details in the background, so that the sky is not differentiated from the landscape, and the body parts, the heads and limbs are enveloped in the blue and so do not stand out at all. We see the same insensitive use of block colour on the 10 of Coins, King of Coins and many other of the cards. This suggests that no artist had a hand in the colouring !

Adam