original rider waite vs centenial edition?

Le Fanu said:

LOL. So true. It brings me many hours of mirth that supposed lovers of tarot decks still cannot - over 100 years on - bring out a copy of the deck as it was and as tarot users want it.

Click to expand...

Ramble Mode --> ON.

Sorry to bump this but Le Fanu's comment was particularly relevant for me this week. The company I work for is preparing for our centennial celebration in 2016. As a long-term employee and photographer, I'll be playing a major role. We're diving into state and local historical records as well as the corporate archives (you remember that last scene in "Raiders of the Lost Arc?") and I'm facing similar issues: How do we reproduce letterpress books, silver halide photographs, color dye transparencies, color lithography, 16mm film, reel to reel audio tape and all of the ephemera of bygone eras while preserving the overwhelming yet equally intangible human-ness of these precious artifacts?

I have a large format, first edition hardcover of an Eden Gray. The illustrations on each verso page are about as pure and true to Smith's litho crayon drawings as I've ever seen or can imagine. Similarly, there must be early editions of Waite's PKT available for precision scanning. Then a skilled digital craftsman, not necessarily an artist, could assemble the overlays for CMYK printing or, using crosshatching and dot screening, recreate some of the earliest deck issues' colors by using Pantone inks custom blended to mimic ye olde lithography inks. Certainly that would have produced a far more satisfying pack of cards than what we ended up accepting. The loss of clarity and muddiness of the WS and Albano reissues, originals and W-PCS commemoratives appear to me to be the result of a cheap or careless photographic reproduction with some digital cleanup.
Of course, the cost to US Games to perform this act of repsect might have been ten to one hundred times what they invested in —the centennial issue. In publishing, however, the pre-production costs tend to be negligible compared to the post production costs of printing, packaging, promotion and shipping.

Ramble Mode --> OFF. Thanks, now.

The Belgium printed Original Rider looka like the Pamela B and colors are charming

with lovely soft spring greens, yellows that are just as mellow and reds as deep as roses.

The Springlike version to me.

I do not mind the Centennial, but having just found an old used 1971 without copyright marks on the face of the cards, old typescript, faces and colors smooth and satin finish...an older U.S. Games deck that looks like a,pristine Pam A for seven dollars and fifty cents--I would say try for a less expensive used copy that resembles the real beauty of a Pam A....unless the vintaged look and extras appeal.

It is a matter of choice and your own enjoyment. I realize I like the vintage Centennial sometimes, but tend to use the Belgium printed Original .




ks on the

Minotauro said:

hmm Im definetly leaning towards the original then with this aditional information ,I just wanted one wich wasnt so colorful lol ,and although I DO prefer the coloring on the centenial edition, the backs are imortant to me too since it is the one thing you're gonna bee seeing most often.
the wich one is a more exact reproduction is just a lovely a plus

the extras on the centenial arent my thing either...
maybe they'll release another " aged " rider waite eventually , I would even like to buy this 2 if the centenial wasnt so expensive.

Click to expand...

I've got the China printed Original in front of me here. Just received it on Thursday. I have only ever used Universal Waite. (I have a Radiant Rider, but that is mostly for fun, and the Diamond Tarot, which I got just because it was too good to miss--so psychedelic!) I really like the card stock and the colors are surprising. My first impression was--where are all those blue skies? But when the cards are laid out in a spread, they do look so lovely. I quite like it and am glad I bought it!