RWS edition with rose cross backs

Yelell

I'm in love with the Rose cross backs, Where can I get this deck?


I bought my deck years ago, and at that time Königsfurt-Urania had yellow box standard "rider waite" decks and blue box "waite" decks. Mine was a blue box deck and their site still lists the two variations.

Here's what it says (translated) on the Königsfurt-Urania store page for the blue box deck: "The Tarot by AE Waite differs from Rider Waite Tarot in the color of the front and in the design of the back of the cards. The Tarot by AE Waite corresponds to the color scheme of the presentation of 1909. The back of the card is reminiscent of the Rosicrucian Association, the "Golden Dawn" medal. ". This makes me think it is still the rosy cross back, but without a back picture on the site I cannot be sure.

The isbn number listed 9783927808133 shows up on the bookdepository and worldwide ebay search if you care to take your chances. Also, the deck would be in german, of course.
 

Richard

There are many versions of the Rosicrucian cross. The Golden Dawn Hermetic Rosy Cross is the most elaborate. Most versions are based on a Calvary cross, in which the lower vertical arm is longer than the other three. The cross that Waite used for his Fellowship of the Rosy Cross is a solar cross (equal armed) with a rose in the center, but the ends of the arms are squared off, not terminated with the cloverleaf design as the one on the card backs.
 

INIVEA

Thanks for the info of how I can obtain this deck :)
 

November's Dawn

My local metaphysical store has this deck and on the box it says english version. I want to know is this version different from one with yellow box or is it the same? I like that rose cross on backs.
 

Teheuti

I have a little RWS deck that I bought in Germany some years ago as part of a cheap box set. The card titles are in German. And the card backs have a rose cross design on purple ground. Scan attached. I wonder whether this back design is historical and if anyone has come across it before?
The scan you include is identical to the backs of the Uitgeverij Schors - Amsterdam deck. They may have printed a German edition in addition to the Dutch language one. Note: they can't be sold to US customers because of copyright issues.
 

Le Fanu

I have one of these in German.

There is also a LoS/Fabbri/Orbis edition of the RWS which has Rosicrucian backs. It's not just Konigsfurt. It's the one which came with the Italian/Spanish/Portuguese series The History of Tarot. I have a couple of these. They are slightly slimmer (i.e card width) than the standard LoS decks.

ETA; just checked. Colouring is different from the Konigsfurt edition. It is the same design but varying shades of blue.
 

Yelell

I don't know about other languages, but I just in the last month got 2 Königsfurt-Urania mini decks in German with the rosy cross back from book depository to the US.


ETA - I 'm wrong, they were pocket size, not mini.
 

Teheuti

Are all these "rosy cross backs" identical to the scan in the first post? Or is the background blue simply a different shade of blue? My Schors RWS deck has an identical back to the scan.
 

Yelell

You are correct. I have only a camera, no scanner, but the blue on the mini looks a bit darker and more toward the purple side.
 

Attachments

  • mini.JPG
    mini.JPG
    99.7 KB · Views: 519