Lo Scarabeo's RWS Tarot/Centenary Special

Emily said:

So they think that people might be complaining about badly printed ie defective decks and not the fact that the whole deck has changed?

Click to expand...

It was a very vague response and I was busy. I think they hadn't LOOKED properly - send them to the printer; they came back ready to sell; they were sold. I have emailed a quite different person now; we shall see. But yes - I think that is possible.

agviz said:

Keeping my fingers crossed for you. And believe me, it's hard to type this with crossed fingers.

Click to expand...

Thanks!

gregory said:

I got email back saying that they are closed for the holiday (an Italian one, you know). But the last time I asked, they just said that they had switched printer after the first batch - maybe they didn't actually SEE....
(This is NOT Ric, by the way ! I asked him a while ago, and as he says - as an editor, it isn't his area of knowledge ! but he would have edited his auto response to take out December !!!!!)

Click to expand...

Maybe it's still (or already) December in Italy? Global warming probably has done a number on earth translation or something.

I have been wanting to revisit this thread for awhile since I purchased the LOS RWS without the multi-language on top. I almost love it. (I've decided I will never get the perfect RWS, there is always something I don't like about any of the versions out). I was not a fan of the multi-language and was so excited when this one came out. Is it the same? Well no as has been stated in this thread but I can live with the heavy line flaws and I do love the sheen of the colors. I will say, when the cards are laid out, there seems to be a lot of blue backgrounds dominating in all the suits. I think some of the cards are absolutely perfect while others seem to be almost from a different deck as far as lightness and darkness goes. I have also found quite a few flaws within the backgrounds. Some looking like finger smudges and very irritating dots. One in particular is right in front of the King of Wands nose. It's really too bad because the cards without the flaws are actually quite beautiful. I always loved the box, something unique about it. So, I'm OK with it. I enjoy reading with it. I think it looks good regardless of the imperfections. (I have to admit, I have pulled out my 1970's RWS with the tartan backs and have been using that too. It almost feels "original" to me). I'm still waiting for the perfect one.

Had a quick look on the ebay listing for this revised LoS deck. In my mind it looks like a digital art version of the Smith Waite deck, better than you'd expect from a tarot app on a phone but a long way short of a facsimile deck. Their previous edition of the deck, which I bought, is much better IMO even though it has multi-lingual titles, because it is a slightly molested and recoloured 'facsimile' rather than digital redrawing. I think it would appeal to those who like a 'warmer' deck but it's not my cup of tea at all.

This thread has gotten me quite unhinged!

There is a Japanese tarot site that has perhaps the best free hi-res JPG scans of the Pam A available on the open innernutz. The condition of the vintage deck was excellent--minimum wear, staining, or scratching--and the scans are at 1200 DPI in both vertical & horizontal resolution. Image size is 1118 by 1920 pixels, and it is in a full 24 bit color space. For those of you who know, this is good stuff! Pages also exist on the site with similar quality scans of the B, C, and D issues:

http://blog.goo.ne.jp/valet_de_coup...0f66813/?img=6cf5c9e139a36cb06a5cdd5a7505afde

Though there has been considerable debate, the Pam A is the only RWS vintage deck that IS NOT currently under some type of USGS copyright protection in the United States. This is not true for the UK and EU, as it will be 2022 before that happens there. Interestingly, it has been in the US public domain since 1966--which explains why so many 'indie' decks are little more than 'one-of' reproductions of it. Everything else, such as Waite-Smith, Rider, and permutations thereof are in the copyright domain though...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rider-Waite_tarot_deck

Anyway, back to that 'unhinged' part!

About a year ago, I did a basic cleanup of the Pam A card images--and used them in a completely reformatted version of Gray's "Complete Guide" in MS Word. All of the old B&W images were now reverted to 1910! This was a sentimental project, as that book was my introduction to the Tarot back in the early 70s.

I have also printed a "two ply" deck of these images (as described in another of my posts) with the brown crackle back image. A longer term project has been to start going through each image in Photoshop and "fixing" all of the smudges, printing errors, and cleaning up linework that left a "little to be desired." What to do with the color saturation & vibrance has been left to future determination.

Looking at FLizzaraga's comparisons in Post #81 of the Centennial, Radiant, and new LoS deck has opened my eyes. First, I find that the new LoS maintains much the same saturation and vibrance--as the original Pam A. There are notable exceptions--especially in hue for various blue and green sections. And the P-A does indeed start the ball rolling with the ochre bay--although ultimately I do more prefer the LoS blue take on it.

What really knocked me out of the park was seeing what this 'trimming' business was all about. Absolutely stunning--and an opportunity to see the same effect will occur in real life when the Morgan-Greer that I have ordered arrives from across the pond sometime next week. In any event, this thread and images I have been collecting from the web on the two LoS decks have given me some color ideas to apply to the original P-A art linework. When the Photoshop is complete, I will crop and resize for standard RWS card sizing--and print as a cutdown for borderless.

As this moves downstream, some samples will be posted in a new thread!

Moderator Note

Papa Tango said:

This thread has gotten me quite unhinged!

There is a Japanese tarot site that has perhaps the best free hi-res JPG scans of the Pam A available on the open innernutz.(snip) Pages also exist on the site with similar quality scans of the B, C, and D issues:

http://blog.goo.ne.jp/valet_de_coup...0f66813/?img=6cf5c9e139a36cb06a5cdd5a7505afde

Click to expand...

To be fair and clear, kenji shared links to those images over in the Antique RWS images in High Resolution thread in the Rider-Waite-Smith forum back in 2011. As the images come from decks in his own collection, they do not break any copyright laws nor do they go against Aeclectic's rules about sites that illegally show all the cards from a deck.

rwcarter, co-Moderator of Tarot Decks

i can't tell the difference, but i have had a headache for quite some time.

Thank you for the clarification, RW!

I was not aware of the AT prohibition of linking sites that may contain full set images of currently protected decks. Japan too has its own laws and interpretations as to what protection periods are--and 'fair use' as well.

That latter as you know allows the limited usage of copyrighted materials (text and images) for the purpose of research, discussion, and study--that allows portions to be used publicly. Under Japanese law everything he is posting is good there--issues can and will arise with what one chooses to do with that material somewhere else in the world. But the P-A is openly available to anyone in the US that does not add the protected "names" to whatever reproduced or derivative works that occur.

I am in awe of kenji and the collections acquired. About 6 months ago, I was part of a Fleabay auction for a P-A deck complete with box. Needless to say, I dropped out at $300--and the price ended up at well over $1000 with him as the ultimate high bidder. The reason that I know definitively that it was he is that he "gloated" a bit about it in the Twitter feed shoutbox on his site! I have since learned that there is little sense in trying to win auctions that have attracted our Japanese collector friends. From selling vintage film cameras in the past I know that they will pay very high dollar to secure the item of their interest...

You surprise me. The killer prices I see when I drop out are almost always offered by Americans.... But someone who collects as seriously as kenji is something else again. As a collector myself - if I could have afforded it, I might well have bid that high - but I have to ignore seriously historic decks. This all reminds me of the slug-it-out between Kaplan and Lo Scarabeo a few years back...

Gregory, I do not doubt that a considerable portion of the inflated "gottahaveit" bids are from Americans riding on the crest of an endocrine fueled bidding rage. Having been on Fleabay as a seller and buyer since 2000, it never ceases to astonish me when I see MANY auctions for currently available stuff from other venues close out many dollars in excess of what they can buy it elsewhere new!

A lot of what I sell on the Bay is higher end photographic gear, specialized electronic R&D/test gear, and collectible antique meerschaum smoking pipes. Across the years, I have become intimately familiar with the penchants and practices of our Pacific Rim friends. Nothing bad, but just like a substantial subset of other buyers--it is not unusual for a serious collector to maintain several Fleabay identities--and find that what appears to be a US buyer is actually someone in another country. This is sometimes done whereby the buyer has an "agent" in the US and is acting on behalf of a non-english speaker somewhere else. One only finds this out most times when that buyer that you thought was in Baltimore has a shipping address in Beijing!

As an aside, don't get me started on Stuart Kaplan...