Thoth Deck Printing History

RLG

Beautiful pic, thanks so much! Does it have an ISBN ? Not that it would help much. I have the ISBN's of the other two Thoth calendars, and can't find a trace of them online :-(
 

Grigori

Thanks for posting this RLG, really fantastic document!

I've been trying to find a link for you, but I can't remember where it was and can't seem to find it again. :( There was a second set of the book for the BOT released recently, someone found a box full of unbound copies of the original edition of the BOT, and had them bound to match the original edition (leather, gilded spamping, special paper etc.) and also included in each copy (so it could be differentiated from the first edition publications) a letter written by Crowley found at the same time.

It might be interesting to include also, if only I could find it... :|
 

Grigori

That's the one thanks Aeon! I've seen a site that discusses the finding and making of the books, but I guess its lost to the maze of the internet and my memory. But that is the book at least! :)
 

Perdurabo

I have a question. It has been noted somewhere on this forum that the old printings of the Book of Thoth shows the Aeon card before Harpocrates (the white child figure) was painted on. I have a battered old 1974 copy which shows this very thing. Also within these pictures of the cards the 3 Hebrew letters and planet attributions of , The Magus, The Moon and The Universe are reversed, hebrew letter on the bottom right and planet bottom left. Now as these appear to have been originally PAINTED on the pictures in this book by Lady Harris, effectively before the cards were totally finished, how can it be a later printing mistake? Any thoughts?
 

RLG

Perdurabo said:
I have a question. It has been noted somewhere on this forum that the old printings of the Book of Thoth shows the Aeon card before Harpocrates (the white child figure) was painted on. I have a battered old 1974 copy which shows this very thing. Also within these pictures of the cards the 3 Hebrew letters and planet attributions of , The Magus, The Moon and The Universe are reversed, Hebrew letter on the bottom right and planet bottom left. Now as these appear to have been originally PAINTED on the pictures in this book by Lady Harris, effectively before the cards were totally finished, how can it be a later printing mistake? Any thoughts?


Dwtw

You're absolutely right! although my nearest copy of the BOT to hand is a later printing, which replaces the original b&w image of the Aeon with a scan of the actual card, (as evidenced by the typeface on the name), the remaining cards are as you say, and the Magus, Moon and Universe have the letters on the 'wrong' side.

I must admit that I never looked at those black and white scans, so I didn't notice this before. Obviously these are NOT printing mistakes, but simply the printers following Lady Harris' original nomenclature, yet replacing it with modern typefaces.

I think what threw me off, (and others on this forum in days gone by, on other threads) is that the 'icky green' edition has all the letters on the left, thus 'correcting' LFH's 'mistake'. But the later editions revert to the layout as described, with three cards having the letters on the right.

It's unfortunate that none of the editions thought to use Harris' own lettering for the cards, which I think is much more attractive that the Times New Roman, or whatever it is.

I want to thank you very much for pointing this out to me. I will make corrections to the printing history essay so that version 2 reflects this fact. I now believe it is NOT actually a printing error, but a replication of Harris' original design for the cards.

thanks again,

Litlluw
RLG
 

Perdurabo

Excellent, thank you very much RLG. This has been bothering me for a while (the reversed symbols) which is in fact how I got directed to your excellent PDF in the first place, synchronistically I stumbled on the battered copy of the BOT a couple of weeks ago in a book sale (only £2!) so now we have established that it is not a printing mistake I'm still stuck with the same question I originally had. Is there any significance to it?
 

RLG

Perdurabo said:
so now we have established that it is not a printing mistake I'm still stuck with the same question I originally had. Is there any significance to it?

Dwtw

Although this is purely conjecture on my part, my best guess is that it is a 'mistake' of sorts, on the part of Lady Harris. She most likely painted the names on the paintings after she had finished them, and since they were done one at a time, she may have simply forgotten that she meant to put the letters on the other side of the title, and was not able to change it afterward, being in gouache.

The alternative is that there IS a mystery hidden therein. So we have the three letters; Beth, Tau, Qoph. The value is 502. In AC's Sepher Sephiroth, this spells the word BTQ, which is Hebrew meaning 'to cut'.

I guess maybe Lady Harris 'cut' the cards? ;-)

and what did Brian Eno say?
"Honor thy mistake as a hidden intention".

Litlluw
RLG
 

Grigori

RLG said:
I guess maybe Lady Harris 'cut' the cards? ;-)

At last, the evidence that even Lady Harris preferred the cards borderless }) Scissors out everyone :D