Current Morgan Greer decks - Different card sizes

Wheel of Fantastic

I see !
Yes it's ironic that the italian version is still printed in Belgium and the english version is printed in italy. I cannot even see the economic reason for doing it like that.... but there must be one certainly. I had thought that this deck was no longer printed in Belgium at all, and that was the reason for all foreign versions of the deck to disapear, but obviously I was wrong. I read somewhere that the tin version is printed in China, go figure.

I have another deck in french that was printed in Belgium (apparently from the same printing facility as the Morgan Greer, though I am not 100%certain). It's the Albano Waite french version (OOP). The cardstock is very different from the original english version (the french version is more "papery" and more satiny, though still in a robust, quality cardstock, fine to the touch. It seems to have the inside carbon layer.) and I like that. The only (big) caveat I have with my french version Albano is that the french titles are plain printing font block letters, as opposed to finely handmade font of the titles of the english version. But I still prefer my french version for sentimental reasons and for the cardstock ; and besides I also have the Centennial to appreciate Pixie's beautiful handmade font. Sorry for this digression from Morgan Greer ! But I thought it was interesting to compare :)

It's an interesting digression and educational! I had absolutely no idea there was ever a French Albano Waite. The vintage Albano Waite I own is my favourite deck of ALL time, it's truly psychedelic! The colours are vastly superior to the current version.

My impression is that France seems to get short thrift from US Games. I wonder if that is because the Marseille tradition is predominant over there?
 

Carojulie

It's an interesting digression and educational! I had absolutely no idea there was ever a French Albano Waite. The vintage Albano Waite I own is my favourite deck of ALL time, it's truly psychedelic! The colours are vastly superior to the current version.

My impression is that France seems to get short thrift from US Games. I wonder if that is because the Marseille tradition is predominant over there?

My impression is that France seems to get short thrift from US Games. I wonder if that is because the Marseille tradition is predominant over there?

I had not thought about it from that angle, but I think you are right, that is probably one reason. Divination tarot in general is not as well known in France as it is in english speaking countries (here, the first thing that comes to mind when you say "tarot" is the name of the game of cards), and when it is, the Marseille deck comes first.
The RWS system is not as well known. And, alas, there are not that many books in french about learning the RWS system. There are some, but the choice is very narrow when you compare it to the huge amount of tarot books available in english ! So it's a good thing for me that I can read english, and probably one of the reasons why I am so much into tarot in the first place. If I had had to rely on ressources available in french only, I would probably not be where I am, tarot wise.

It is also a vicious circle I suspect : the less french people are aware of the RWS, the less books and decks will be printed in french... and the less french people will be aware of RWS...

My collection is probably made of 90% of decks in english.
It does not bother me to have a deck with english titles, and I am also OK with titles in other languages (actually I am rather fond of that. Titles in a foreign language that I do not speak, are a little bit more exotic for me.... so exctiting ! and I can usually understand which card I am looking at even if I dont speak the language) But, from time to time, it is just cool to have a deck in french. It makes the deck a little more special to me, and also, it enables my sitters to understand what's written on the cards ! (not everybody here speaks english, far from it !)

You are right, US games is not very generous with french versions of their decks ! Apparently, they used to be (the Morgan Greer I have in french was printed by Carta Mundi under license of USG, same for my french Albano Waite) But they stopped printing these decks in french, so I suppose the french market was not interesting enough.

There are a couple other decks that can be found in french versions, from other publishers : I know that there is a french version for Shadowscapes, for Moore's Steapunk tarot, and I think also for the Tarot of Hidden Realms and for Mystic Faeries... probably others too.
But, I do not own these. I have the english version of the Steampunk and of the Mystic Faeries because there availability is easier through the net than anything else, in the small city where I live, and as most of my tarot reading and ressources are in english, when I come accross the name of a deck, it is usually first in english ! I realised afterwards that there were french versions for the Steampunk and Mystic faeries... but too late.
I do have the Druidcraft in french though (Tarot des Druides) and as it is one of my favourites, it makes up for the others I missed ! :)

This is an interesting subject and I might open a thread about it later, because I feel bad about crowding your Morgan Greer thread with my babbles of languages versions of decks :) But thank you for this discussion because it has given me a lot to think about !
 

Wheel of Fantastic

Heh, don't worry about 'babbles', I've learnt more about tarot in France in this thread than I have in the past year. This is the Morgan Greer/Tarot in France thread!

I recall some people complaining the Morgan Greer cards were too large to shuffle with; I'm assuming that's one reason why the English edition deck is now narrower. If that's the case though, why are the Italian cards still larger? It's probably not because Italians have larger hands!
 

Wheel of Fantastic

O.K., I've just noticed something about the current narrower English edition that annoys me. US Games have not only made the English cards narrower, they've also cropped the pictures on the right side by about 2-3 mm. Mainly the right side but some of the left as well. Depending on how well you know the deck from older printings, this may throw you off.

The difference between the pictures of the English and Italian decks is small but it's there. For some reason this makes me VERY ANNOYED *calm down, deep breaths*

I have to say that, objectively, I do consider the current Italian edition to be the better deck for this reason. Oh US Games, why do you have to keep f€&£%¥g f€%K things up all the f@#?!&g time? F@£K!

Edit: 1mm off the right hand side. I'm still annoyed though, it seems to make the close up pictures in the deck a bit more close up.