How Original is Original (RWS)?

stella01904

MM ~ I have lusted after this deck, looking at images online. I couldn't justify the purchase, since I already have RWS. I LIKE the sage green in place of the loud cornflower blue. Yesterday I was looking in the bargain bin at my local bookstore and found it for 75% off! Mama didn't raise no fool...I am very happy with the colors, but I have noticed that the drawing is slightly different! Some of the profiles and facial expressions are different because of this. The King of Wands has a different nose. The Empress has a completely different expression. So - what's the closest to what Pixie did? I know this is not an "original original" (here's a nice link where you can look at different verions of decks - it ALMOST answered my question http://home.comcast.net/~pamela-c-smith/home.html also, to see some of her other work http://home.comcast.net/~pamela-c-smith/chimneycorners.html her other art looks much more refined than her Tarot decks but it's not surprising, considering how much work the deck was and the little she was paid.) I guess what I am trying to ask is this - the regular RWS deck, commonly available, was made after the plates were destroyed in the London Blitz. Is it a re-drawing or a true reproduction? And the Original - is it a true reproduction of the 1931 version of the deck you see on the website - or a re-drawing of it? I'm completely discombobulated...BB, Stella
 

tarotbear

colouring ...

I, too, have always wondered why different RW decks have different colors and coloring. Do the actual original paintings by Pamela Coleman-Smith still exist somewhere?

When I purchased my boxed RW with Waite's book as a set, the first thing I noticed was that there were a lot of greenish skies, and that horrid bright orange stuff was thankfully missing. I wondered if someone had gone back to original illustrations and that they had changed color with age or something. I found this deck a lot easier to use without all that garish coloring.
 

stella01904

tarotbear said:
Do the actual original paintings by Pamela Coleman-Smith still exist somewhere?
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MM ~ Now THAT is an EXCELLENT question! Where are those? BB, Stella PS Happy to hear from a kindred spirit! The more muted colors make it more restful, I think. Easier to get that good alpha wave cooking...! Leave the loud colors, the radiance and the glow-in-the-dark stuff to someone else...PS again - This is the MAIN link I meant to include in the first post http://home.comcast.net/~vilex/SunComparison/main-Sun.html "OS" indeed!
 

stella01904

MM ~ Different from the 1993! But look at the 1993 lettering as compared to "regular" modern RWS! What's afoot? BB, Stella
 

Rusty Neon

Yellow-box US Games R-W deck

Fulgour said:
1971 Bright Colours (but hand drawn titles)
http://www.learntarot.com/bigjpgs/maj00.jpg
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What I can't understand is why the regular size yellow-box US Games R-W deck available in the stores today doesn't have hand-drawn titles (and instead has the ugly, 'non-traditional' type-face fonts), whereas the small size and jumbo size yellow box US Games R-W decks available in the stores today come with the hand-drawn titles.

I couldn't get past this and finally managed to purchase a post-1971, pre-today version of the regular size yellow-box US Games R-W deck (and then found a second one later on, as 'insurance'). And we have a happy Rusty Neon!
 

Fulgour

stella01904 said:
MM ~ Different from the 1993! But look at the 1993 lettering as compared to "regular" modern RWS! What's afoot? BB, Stella
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Pam's lettering, even painted in blocks, is easily recognizable.
(Proving she did not put the B and J and The High Priestess.)
However, it would be easy enough for a printer to dabble on,
as any competent shop would have someone able to do script.
 

Cerulean

The hand-written lettering and different coloring

is also attractive to me.

I heard, as others have, there aren't any original plates left either in the black and white line illustrations or colored versions. A 1959 University Books, original printing with Gertrude Moakley's commentary, might yield color plates that come close to the early 1971 "Accurate Color Tones" boxed set from U.S. Games with the Park Avenue address. The book and the U.S. Games printing have the italic font. I have the 1971 Accurate color tones cards, but
gave my 1959 book with the colored plates to the 'museum' collection!

Those are the only examples that came my way since seeing the 1909 cards on the online Sacred Texts site.

I finally got a soothing blue and purple Tarot Sutra just for the colors and a silly and pretty italic font (computerized, though) at a great discount (about seven dollars).

Very odd, but the esoteric coloring instructions of the Builders of the Aydtum from Los Angeles ended up in the 1960's Frankie Albano deck--his Tarot Productions was also from the Los Angeles area, a few small postal zip code area miles apart! (postal zip codes like 90061/90021 are U.S. designations for
mailing zones in the Los Angeles County).

Funny that the funky coloring and the pretty hand-done lettering perks up some of my attention after a long day. It's my 'nostalgic' deck having grown up in that area ages ago...

If all goes well, I may have a set soon that even includes the original instructions and title cards...and I usually only pay about ten or twelve dollars for such finds...Thanks for letting me chatter on about this!

Regards

Cerulean
 

Parzival

How Original Is Original (RWS) ?

I really like this deck, for its muted, subtle, granular coloration, for its arcane old postcard look, for all that misty aquamarine through the final five majors. I hope it's original. It doesn't shout at you to get attention. It's ambience is early spring's return to life, not the burning summer sun.
 

Cerulean

Ah, now I see what you all are saying...

so you do see the muted and liquid joy of a delicate English jade, "my sheaf is small but it is also green"...

Since I love someone with Irish flecks of gold in the green and gray of his eyes, I've enjoyed seen the family dress revelling in clothes of muted tones... and the fair beauty of many with the misted-muted-freckled fairness...

Um, perhaps a better analogy would be how I can see it's a taste of well, like, enjoying a tea drink of warm green, muted browns, not the light or pale gold
type. A matter of taste and nostalgic memory.

Cheers,

Cerulean

P.S. Excuse my rambling--it's only my opinion.
 
Out of print/rare decks? Norse Tarot 1989