Thoth - List of Editions.

Strange2

Rusty Neon said:
anybody else with a Llewellyn U.S. deck ... Does your deck have a similar problem with one or more defective cardbacks?

I have the Llewellyn U.S. deck, and there are no defective cardbacks.

On my U.S. deck, the 8 is missing from the top border on the 8 of Cups (which is somewhat appropriate, as the keyword is "Indolence", meaning lazy!).

There is quite a variation on the border colors throughout the deck; some are power blue, some are green blue, and a few are very light blue/white.

There is also quite a variation on the clarity of the images on the front of the cards, some very distinct and some hazy, muddy, or faded. In particular the 6 of Disks is very washed out and indistinct (which is ironic as the keyword is "Success").
 

Lillie

That card is the same in mine. I find it quite distressing to look at. The other two, which are bad, but not as bad as that are 3 & 4 swords.

Some of the cards are very dark and dull, the Universe is a good example, but others are much brighter than my 'green' US Games deck.

Also, on the size of boxes/cards. Thank you Rusty Neon for your dedicated measuring and comparison.

With mine, they barely fit into the gold box. The top and bottom cards sometimes stick.
In fact, there is a slight bowing across the cards. I think if they were not bowed they would be too wide for the box!
 

Rusty Neon

Llewellyn U.S. deck

Strange2 said:
I have the Llewellyn U.S. deck, and there are no defective cardbacks.

So far, from the replies, it would appear that the problem or 'defect' with the cardbacks is unique to my Llewellyn U.S. deck. As, so far it's unique to my deck, I haven't figured out whether to sigh or whether to cheer about it.

On my U.S. deck, the 8 is missing from the top border on the 8 of Cups (which is somewhat appropriate, as the keyword is "Indolence", meaning lazy!).

As well, in the case of my U.S. deck.

There is quite a variation on the border colors throughout the deck; some are power blue, some are green blue, and a few are very light blue/white.

In my U.S. deck, I find this too. However, even the most powder blue of the U.S. borders is greenish is comparison to the powder blue borders of the Llewellyn H.K. deck. The percentage of powder blue borders (compared to lighter borders) in the H.K. is higher than in the case of the U.S. deck.

There is also quite a variation on the clarity of the images on the front of the cards, some very distinct and some hazy, muddy, or faded. In particular the 6 of Disks is very washed out and indistinct (which is ironic as the keyword is "Success").

I find this as well in the case of my U.S. deck, including what you note about the 6 of Disks. The 6 of Disks and certain other cards are also washed out in the Llewellyn H.K. deck; however, the 6 of Disks is the most washed out of them all.

As well, especially when compared to the H.K. deck, a number of the U.S. card images are overly saturated in colour.
 

Rusty Neon

6 of Disks

Lillie said:
That card is the same in mine. I find it quite distressing to look at. The other two, which are bad, but not as bad as that are 3 & 4 swords.

In both my Llewllyn U.S. deck and my Llewellyn H.K. deck, those three cards -i.e., 6 of Disks, 3 of Swords and 4 of Swords are washed-out looking, especially the 6 of Disks.

In the H.K. deck, the 7 of Swords, Queen of Cups, and Hanged Man might be washed out, or else it may be the way that the light colours in the original paintings for those cards came out because of the particular colour mixture of the film used to photograph the cards. Their 'washed-out-ness' don't seem as noticeable in my U.S. deck.
 

Rusty Neon

Lillie said:
With mine, they barely fit into the gold box. The top and bottom cards sometimes stick.
In fact, there is a slight bowing across the cards. I think if they were not bowed they would be too wide for the box!

That's interesting about the Weiser slipcase box. In the case of the Llewellyn U.S. deck, the cards fit comfortably but not too loosely into the gold box; perhaps it's the thick O.T.O. card that ensures this.
 

Lillie

I havn't got an OTO card :(

I should have, but it must have got lost sometime in the last 30 years.

Big boo hoo for my lost and lonley OTO card, alone out there in the wild with no deck to cosey up to.
 

Alta

No, mine either.
 

Lillie

Well then, let's hope that they found each other and have gone to the place that OTO cards go to when they have lost their deck.

From now on I'm going to imagine that mine is with yours and they aare not lonley.

I feel happier about it now.

Thank you Marion!
 

fyreflye

I've just become the owner (courtesy eBay) of what must be the original Samuel Weiser edition of the Thoth deck. Hard white box with black printing except for the red OTO logo, and an inner gold colored slipcase that fits the cards snugly. 78 large cards plus the OTO card; no Unicursal Hexagram, additional Magi or lwb. My 1986 AG Muller large Thoth with lwb fits perfectly into the gold box so there could have been a UH and an lwb in the original edition. "Distributed by Samuel Weiser" and "Printed in USA." No date, no copyright notice, no "Instruction book included."
The cards have undecorated pale blue borders on the faces and borderless backs; darker aquamarine numbers and titles. No astrological or elemental symbols in the borders of the Majors. Both front and back seem generally paler than the 1986 AG Muller, with less color saturation though the color tints seem slightly darker. Some loss of detail as in the 6 of Disks, where the complex central figure is almost completely faded out. No bad backs or missing numbers on the cards, though. They seem the same thickness as the large 1986 A G Muller cards.
Considering the great color saturation in the 1968 Albano-Waiite deck and the 1969 "T: The New Tarot for the Aquarian Age" (both self-published) I would think Weiser could have done better.