Wirth-influenced decks

[kenji]

1890s? - Yale University, Beinecke Library, Cary Collection,1889 Wirth-style deck with hand-written astrological signs and divinatory meanings. Kaplan, Encyclopedia of Tarot, Vol. 2 says they are inspired by Wirth.

As to the divinatory meanings on the right margins: Mr Kaplan says that they are from Practical Astrology by Comte de Saint-Germain, but it seems they are more precisely from Ely Star's "Les Mystères de l'Horoscope" (1888). The DMs IN FRENCH given on the table in this book exactly correspond with those on this Wirth-ish deck. Though the book by Saint-Germain has the same table, it is all in English.

I also looked for the same thing in Paul Christian's books, but so far I can' find such.

 

[Teheuti]

Kenji -

Thank you so much. Wonderful material.

 

[Cerulean]

Does the first English edition of Tarot of the Bohemians with Waite's commentary

need to be added?

I may have a first English edition hardcover. I believe Rider and sons were the publisher.

I gave a friend an early twenties reprint, I do not remember any pictorial changes.

I can also say when Il Solleone or Vito Arienti published newsletters or instructions for his editions, he wrote a summary of 22 majors that in an early book I finally found as attributed to Oswald Wirth. The later leaflets do not credit Wirth, the info as it is laid out is tiny printing as it is.

I suspect many 20th century writers are in his debt, but may not even know.

McGregor's list of 22 majors in an 1899 (?) reminded me of Wirth's lists, but I better check. It was from a back listing of George Redway's edition of the Grand Orient's (Waite) printed collection of occulty arts...I may be confusing the keywords.

I will return with ToB English publishing date and ad text fot McGregors book that lists tarpt majors...with key words?

Cerulean

Thanks to everyone who offered items that appear on this list. Please let me know about corrections, additions or changes in category. It should be noted the Wirth got his major inspiration from Marseille-style decks and commentary/images by Eliphas Lévi, that he also drew from Pauhl Christian. I'll eventually add links to most of them.

CARDS & DECKS BY WIRTH:

1889 - Les 22 Arcanes du Tarot Kabbalistique, publisher: G. Poirel, Paris. B&W with color by stencil.

1889 - B&W line drawings illustrate Papus' Le Tarot des Bohemiens.

1897 - 7 B&W line drawings of tarot cards by Wirth appear in Stanislas de Guaita's La Clef de la Magie Noire (the 2nd volume of Le Serpent de la Genèse).

1911 - Revised B&W for an article on Masonry and the Tarot.

1926 - Art Nouveau style cards in color with metallic gold ink in a portfolio of 11 plates, published as Le Tarot: Des Imagiers du Moyen-Age: Restitvé dans l'esprit de son symbolisme par Oswald Wirth, Le Symbolisme, 16 rue Ernest-Renan, Paris.

1927 - B&W line art for Wirth's Le Tarot des Imagiers du Moyen Age. Some copies of the book are bound with the color portfolio plates.


POSSIBLE WIRTH DRAWINGS OR IN COLLABORATION WITH WIRTH:

1917 - Mosaic Images for the Tarot Chapel - Chateau de Aveniéres (with Assan Farid Dina).


NEAR EXACT REPLICAS:

1890s? - Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, Cary Playing Cards FRA 197/1, 197/2, 197/3. 1889 Wirth-style B&W deck with hand-written astrological signs and divinatory meanings. Kaplan, Encyclopedia of Tarot, Vol. 2 says they are inspired by Wirth. There's no signature and the colors don't match the original.

1960 - Replica in color and metallic gold on yellow card stock of the 1926 images without nouveau borders done by Georg Alexander (publisher?, Kusnacht-Zurich, Germany). http://www.tarotgarden.com/database/images/w-decks/wirthplanchescards.gif

1966 - Reprint of Le Tarot des Imagiers du Moyen Age, Claude Tchou, Paris. Accompanied by a variation of the 1926 images without nouveau borders: B&W illustrations and 22 card color deck with metallic copper ink, redrawn by Michel Simeon.

1969 - 22 cards accompanying Elisabeth Haich's Tarot, Die 22 Bewusstseinsstufen des Menshcen, Stuttgart, Germany.

1975 - Variation of the 1926 in color with metallic gold ink but without nouveau borders, accompanying Elisabeth Haich's book in English translated as The Wisdom of the Tarot. (Another source claims to have a book that included cards with the nouveau borders.) http://www.tarotgarden.com/database/images/w-decks/wirthhaichearlycards.gif

1976 - Oswald Wirth Tarot Deck, Simeon/Tchou, 78 card color deck with Minors by ?, printed for USGames.

1985, 1990 - The Tarot of the Magicians, translation by Diana Faber with Richard Gardner, with B&W Simeon/Tchou images, Weiser.

1986 - Wirth Tarot, 22 cards 1926-edition color with metallic gold on cream light card stock, Drei Eichen Verlag, Munich, Germany.

1997, 1998, 2001 - Le Tarot de Oswald Wirth, 22 cards 1926-edition color with metallic gold, Editions de L'Aigle, Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada.


CLOSE ADAPTATIONS:

1928 - J. Augustus Knapp painting of 1889 designs in M. P. Hall's The Secret Teachings of the Ages.

1929, 1934, 1981- Knapp-Hall Tarot, 78 cards, J. Augustus Knapp, Philosophical Research Society, Los Angeles CA (1985, USGames).

1938 - Lasenic Tarot (Lasenikuv Tarot), 78 cards, Pierre de Lasenic (original name Petr Kouhout), illustrated by Vladislav Kuzel. Republished by Trigon, Prague in 1995 and 2002.

1979 - Tarot Ideographic du Kebek, 22 cards, Yves Paquin, Editions de Mortagne, Ottowa, Canada. http://pasteboardmasquerade.com/Reviews/kebek.html

1983, 1984 - Le Tarot d'Argolance, 22 cards. Pierrick Pinot, Atelier d'Art, France. http://argolance.free.fr/english/tarot_argolance_presentation_.htm

1986 - Les 22 Lames du Tarot, Marguerite de Surany & Elisabeth de Ribes-Van der Kemp, Editions Justine, Paris.

1990s - Radical Wirth, 22 card imaginative recoloring of Simeon/Tchou version, Carol Herzer, Woodstock NY.

1989, 1995 - Tarocchi Ermetici, 22 cards, Sergio Toppi, Lo Scarabeo, Torino, Italy.

1993 - Zanoni Tarot, 22 cards, Roger Zanoni, Runinga, Ojai CA.

2007 - Universal Wirth, 78 cards, Stefano Palumbo & Giordano Berti - Lo Scarabeo, Turino, Italy, 2007.

? - Tarot/TAPO "Arcani Maggiori Tarocchi", Bulgarian, Russian language. Black and red box (can't read the text).


TOUCHES OF WIRTH:

1976 - Tarot Balbi, 78 cards, Domenico Balbi, Fournier, Vitoria, Spain.

1978 - The Tavaglione Tarot, Giorgio M.S. Tavaglione, USGames.

1985 - The Medieval Scapini Tarot, 78 cards, Luigi Scapini - USGames.

1986 - Eclectic Tarot, 78 cards, Josef Machynka, Piatnik, Vienna, Austria.

1990 - Tarot de Pumariega, 78 cards, Carlos Pumariega, Fournier, Vitoria, Spain.

1992 - Tarot Nagy Arkánumok (Kazanlár Tarot), 22 card deck and book, Kazanlár Ámin Emil, Kassák Kiadó, Budapest, Hungary. Reprinted as 78 card deck, USGames, 1996.

1999 - Le Nouveau Tarot de Marseille, 78 cards, Colette Silvestre-Haeberie, France Jeux Productions, Paris.

2000 - Tarot Namur, 22 cards, Namur & Marta Leyrós, Academia de Cultura Arcana, Brazil.


HINTS OF WIRTH:

1984 - Gareth Knight Tarot Deck, 78 cards, illus by Sander Littel, USGames. (Originally produced but not published, c. 1964.)

2001 - Beginner's Tarot, 78 cards, John Woodcock, Barron's Educational Publishing.

2005 - Le Grand Tarot Universal, 78 cards, Éditions Bruno de Nys, Betz, 2005.

 

[Bhavana]

I see that a lot of my wish list decks are on the above Wirth inspired decks...wonder if that is significant. I had no idea Tarot de Pumariega was a Wirth type deck - I would have to say that of all the decks I have, that one is one of my favorites.

I meet the guy with the $10 Wirth deck tomorrow. Should be interesting to see what he has - I just hope they are in good condition (he also is bringing a vintage Sacred Rose, which is awesome because my old Sacred Rose deck has a lot of damaged cards and what he said was a mint condition Xultan - possibly first edition) and I can have them all for $20 or $25 .

 

[Cerulean]

Have to go offline with this in terms of images, be back later

When I started with analyzing an 1889 MacGregor Mathers description keyword description of "Science" as applied to Arcana II, Papessa/Popess/High Priestess, there is some conformity in keywords. I was also glancing through the 1910 Tarot of Bohemians from Rider and 1926 images/1927 French edition of Tarot of Magicians.

In terms of images, I have the 1910 Tarot of Bohemians; 1926 Oswald Wirth (OW) plates in color; 1927 French edition of Tarot of the Magicians. I also have a 20th century reprint, Editions L'Aigle, which has darker colors than my 1926 OW color plates.

Added later: Guess what- the 1926 plates in the OW portfolio are DIFFERENT than the illustrations in the 1927 book! Even if they were released together, the illustrations in the book and included portfolio are not the same for each card.

It took some digging, but here is the information in summary, fromA History of The Occult Tarot:

(Also the note in 17 explains the lyre that Kenji brought up in a previous post):

(Page 182)....

...In some copies of the 1927 book, the 1926 plates are bound in back of the book. In the body of the book, the trumps appear in economical linework, usually from the plates that underlie Wirth's plates, but quite berefit of baroque borders. Certain trumps are completely different in drawing and format. (16) At one point, Wirth's imagery completely contradicts his discussion. (17)

Here's the notes in back of the book:

(16)

Cards 0, 12 and 19 have inscriptions...figure has a dotted tone.,,,

(17)

Wirth happened to agree with Levi about un card; it corresponds to Gemini the Twins. They can be construed as Castor and Pollux, and Wirth wanted the card to include their attribute, a lyre Wirth says that he regrets the absence from the card but in fact his drawing includes the lyre after all. In the book's introduction, he says that the first manuscript version was lost, and he had to rewrite the whole thing. Perhaps that accounts for some of the book's disparities.

...

In conclusion, the L'Aigle modern reproduction shown in a link below might have the linework of the 1926 plates, but I haven't compared them in great detail yet; I can attest the color is different from my 1926 plates and noticed the 1927 book illustrations are different than the 1926 plates.


http://www.green-door.narod.ru/wirthversengl.html

 

[Cerulean]

Placeholder for additional detail

...to be revisted later.

Cerulean

 

[Teheuti]

Guess what- the 1926 plates in the OW portfolio are DIFFERENT than the illustrations in the 1927 book! Even if they were released together, the illustrations in the book and included portfolio are not the same for each card.

Any chance of some scans of illustrations from the 1927 book? Not the colored cards, but the all the B&W illustrations?

http://www.green-door.narod.ru/wirthversengl.html

Helpful, but most of the card images seem to be broken (I tried with both Firefox and Chrome). I've been comparing about 25 different Wirth decks/images. There's little differences (and sometimes big ones) among them all. And, yes, the text sometimes seems to refer to the 1889 deck and sometimes to the 1926 one or to something a little different.

Thanks for your insights.

 

[Cerulean]

Tarot of the Bohemians, Sacred Texts online

If I find major diffetences in the images, I will post offline.

 

[Teheuti]

Great news - I just heard from RedWheel/Weiser that they are planning on including color illustrations of the 1889 Wirth deck in the back of the new edition of The Tarot of the Magicians. You can cut them out and mount them on a backing to have your own deck.

It will have an introduction by me.

 

[Cerulean]

Yeah, will be looking forward to a fresh look at a classic...

And will have to locate where I can see these online.

So many versions...

Great news - I just heard from RedWheel/Weiser that they are planning on including color illustrations of the 1889 Wirth deck in the back of the new edition of The Tarot of the Magicians. You can cut them out and mount them on a backing to have your own deck.

It will have an introduction by me.