So there is this little gift store in my godforsaken Bible Belt town that, surprisingly enough, has started selling Tarot decks! (Well, mostly Tarot decks; they also had the Fairy Lenormand Oracle and an oracle or two, including the Wild Unknown Animal Spirit.)

 

It is attached to a café where I went to get breakfast today, after getting done some routine lab work for my next doctor's appointment. They sell a concoction called Frank's Crowbar with four shots of espresso in it that will make you grow hair in your chest, and pretty good scones.

 

And I was surprised to find there, in a gigantic yellow box, Lo Scarabeo's Tarot Original 1909.

.

My budget is shot all to hell, and I need yet another Waite Smith iteration like I need a shot in the head (in keeping with the gun theme), but I was so surprised that I ended up buying it on the spot.

 

I have not had the time to really get to know it, but here are some pics I just took. The colors are brighter in person.

 

 

Given the patchy history of the non US Games Waite-Smith editions (remember the hastily redrawn LS Pamela Colman Smith RWS Tarot?) this made me wonder: Is You Know Who's reign of terror over?

 

I also wonder if they really used a scan of the original 1909 edition for this. The roses and lilies back is not blue and white like the actual original, but red and green like the aforementioned Pamela Colman Smith edition.

I'll be interested to hear more about the editions, but it's a gorgeous looking deck regardless. Love that rich colour.

It is a nice one. And they do own an original - not sure which year, so they may indeed have re-scanned it. It's a crackleback, though.

 

But I wish they had use the blue and white roses. (And I think their round version of it was a mistake !)

7 hours ago, gregory said:

It is a nice one. And they do own an original - not sure which year, so they may indeed have re-scanned it. It's a crackleback, though.

 

But I wish they had use the blue and white roses. (And I think their round version of it was a mistake !)

 

Oh. I didn't even realize they had done a round version of it. I have been... somewhere else lately, mentally. And spiritually.

 

I have an idea: Maybe they cannot do a blue and white rose & lily back for legal reasons?

Have to say, they make good quality decks. This looks like a buy. But I like my borderless deck as well. 

I'm sorely tempted.  What do you think of the book?

It's not half bad, actually.

 

21 hours ago, gregory said:

It's not half bad, actually.

Silly me.  When I saw the author's name (Sasha Graham) I thought Sasha Fenton, a tarot writer I like a lot.  I like the backs of the cards and the coloring.  It would be really cool if they were borderless.

1 hour ago, Vesta said:

 

Silly me.  When I saw the author's name (Sasha Graham) I thought Sasha Fenton, a tarot writer I like a lot.  I like the backs of the cards and the coloring.  It would be really cool if they were borderless.

 

I had the same thought when I saw it, actually. So it's not silly.

Indeed it isn't. But Sasha Graham is OK - not up to Fenton, but OK.