editions of bourne's element tarot

Recently I received a copy of the element tarot ( http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/element/ ) that came with neither box nor any other information. According to aeclectic this tarot is from 1996 while learntarot even states a 2002 copyright (http://www.learntarot.com/emdesc.htm), although the artwork looks rather 60's.

My copy also has oldish looking backs and oldish looking cardstock, that is rather thick cards, semi-glossy fronts, unlaminated backs and small differences in size. I am sure it's older than 1996. Does anybody know about older editions of that deck than the one mentioned by aeclectic?

Thanks for any information.

Its the first version. Stacy Mendoza from memory. GregoRy will tell us soon I bet!

Yes indeed. Staci and her co-creator David Bourne were appalled when it was printed all squished like that - I THINK she even posted here.

ETA no, David did:

http://www.tarotforum.net/library/1...elp-identify-this-tarot-for-me-20050421.shtml

I quote:

I see you have all been discussing our first Tarot deck we did for Anness publishing. The truth be known they did a complete hatchet job on it, it was printed in heaven knows were in Asia somewhere, we completed the deck in RGB and they then decided they wanted it in CMYK as well as in a different size hence the squashed look. But anyway we find it a little embarassing because of the mess they made of it so please forgive us. Our next deck The Element Tarot was what it should have been like...

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Mine is dated 2000,and was indeed put out by Anness Publishing as part of a kit called Mysteries of Tarot. I also have the decent one (the Element) which was 2002.

gregory said:

Mine is dated 2000,and was indeed put out by Anness Publishing as part of a kit called Mysteries of Tarot. I also have the decent one (the Element) which was 2002.

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I just recently got the Mysteries of the Tarot kit. (Well, prob about 3 months ago as that's when I fell out with eBay.) I'll have to compare that deck to my other copy (copies?) of the Element deck to see what's what. My Kit is put out by Select Editions though, so maybe it's with the newer cards and therefore isn't squished. I'll have to compare this weekend (hopefully).

gregory said:

Mine is dated 2000,and was indeed put out by Anness Publishing as part of a kit called Mysteries of Tarot. I also have the decent one (the Element) which was 2002.

Click to expand...

rwcarter said:

I just recently got the Mysteries of the Tarot kit. (Well, prob about 3 months ago as that's when I fell out with eBay.) I'll have to compare that deck to my other copy (copies?) of the Element deck to see what's what. My Kit is put out by Select Editions though, so maybe it's with the newer cards and therefore isn't squished. I'll have to compare this weekend (hopefully).

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The outer box says Select Editions while the book inside the box says Anness Publishing with a date of 2000 and I have a first printing.

I do have a different edition of the companion book that's exactly the same except for the front and back covers. This edition is from Hermes House, which is a different imprint of Anness Publishing and says "Updated © 2002". This is also a first printing.

Strange that the set comes with the Element Dreamer deck, but the book isn't illustrated with that deck....

Rodney

I now they sometimes called it that - but I've never seen it printed with that name ! So you don't have the delightfully specially squished cards ! but are those what the book is illustrated with ?

The book is illustrated with a TdM for the Majors and I believe the Tarot of the Northern Shadows for the Minors. (If it's not Northern Shadows, then it's Old Path.) No attributions for deck illustrations could be found through quickly looking.

Haven't had a chance to compare cards though.

Thanks, everybody, for all the information.

The poor print quality of the edition by Anness Publishing and the squashing of the images definitely added to my 60's or 70's impression of the deck. In the 2002 edition also the colors in many cards are completely different. It's not only a slight hue change, the chariot for example has been completely recolored. Here is the link to the creator's website (copied from the thread Gregory has quoted): http://www.darkihbis.mistral.co.uk/wotab/ourbooks.htm . There you can compare some examples of the 2000 "concept" version (unnamed) and the 2002 "decent" version (Element tarot).

I still wonder it the images of the concept version might have been painted a long time before they were first printed. It was quite a surpirse for me to learn that the deck only dates back as far as 2000.

Both of my copies are the squished version judging by what's on the authors' website.