Red Owl Vs Blue Owl

I have just rediscovered my 2 vintage Lenormand decks (see my post in Tarot Cards!), and I have a deck with a red owl on the backs and another one with a blue owl on the backs. The corners are all gilded.

But both of them have verses in English. Is this normal? I thought one of these types had playing cards inset. Plus I thought the verses were in German...

Anyone care to clairify?

As I understand it, a new deck with a blue owl on the back will have a playing card inset, while a new deck with a red owl on the back will have the verses. Older decks, though, (mine seem to be from the 70s) have blue backs and verses. I don't know if there are older decks with playing card insets, and if there are, what colour the backs might be.

Both my decks have verses in English.

Are the boxes of your two decks at all different? Is there anything to indicate their age?

Any help on where to get a deck with English verses would be appreciated.

I've tried and I can't find any.

You can get the A G Muller deck @ Alida Store. Do a seach for M.lle Lenormand Oracle (Symbols & Text)

http://www.alidastore.com/

It has playing card inserts and verses in English. It was my favorite deck until I picked up some newer ones recently.

Thank you but Alida doesn't accept my cards, (Switch/Maestro) and it doesn't use Paypal.

The Blue Owl one is in a pale green box, LWB has copyright Stuart Kaplan 1970 (I can't post photos Im afraid!)

The Red Owl one is in an even paler - almost white - box, and again, copyright 1970. But on the box it has written "Special Edition for Time Life Books".

Both have a number 12274 on the box, Made in Switzerland, AG Muller "authentic reproduction of famous 19th Century deck in full color complete with instructions." Blue Owl also has on the front "Swiss Made".

One is definitely Blue Owl and the other is definitely Red Owl and both have charming little verses in English and they are really going to help me "get" Lenormand. Neither of them have playing card insets, which surprises me as I was under the impression - before reading Akut's post - that the Blue Owl should have...

An example of the verses:

card 12, The Birds:

"The birds mean grief but remain in good cheer,
Woes will be brief when the birds disappear;
If this card is found far distant from you,
A voyage is bound to loom into view."

card 33. The Key:

"Near the person, the key means success.
Overcoming oppression, you make some progress.
When further away, good luck is weaker,
Plans go astray and courage is meeker."

This is so weird.

The first one I got seems to be the same as your Blue one - pale green box, copyright 1970, and Swiss Made on the box.

Then I bought a Time-Life one to see if there was any difference. It's identical - same pale green box, though instead of "Swiss Made" it says "Special Edition for Time-Life Books". The font for the "Authentic reproduction" and "Special ecition" bits is slightly different.

The big difference is in the LWBs. The first one is printed on white paper and looks like it could be new. The Time-Life one is printed on yellowish or cheap paper, is printed crookedly, and the paper is cut badly so that it almost chops off the printing. It also has the distribution, printing and copyright information on the front cover, not on the first page like the white LWB. As far as I can tell what's printed in the LWBs is the same.

post referred to ebay item no longer available -- never mind

Clarification

Le Fanu said:

I have just rediscovered my 2 vintage Lenormand decks (see my post in Tarot Cards!), and I have a deck with a red owl on the backs and another one with a blue owl on the backs. The corners are all gilded.

But both of them have verses in English. Is this normal? I thought one of these types had playing cards inset. Plus I thought the verses were in German...

Anyone care to clairify?

Click to expand...

I just acquired a Blue Owl No. 12274. I initially wanted a Red Owl because I too thought it had the versus in English, but apparently the older Blue Owls had the versus in English perhaps before they had a Red Owl Edition is my guess? My deck pictured below is from 1970.

To my eye, my box is pale blue, but it may look green to someone else.

Mine is the red owl n°12272 with gilded corners, red backs and french verses.
The verses are not the best imo (I prefer the Brepols' or Dondorf's ones or the accompanying meanings in Daveluy-Geûens) but I like the contrast between the light blue drawings and the energetic red backs.

lenoroug by PhilBeDaN, sur Flickr

IMG_0002 by PhilBeDaN, sur Flickr