Osvald Wirth Tarot. Handcoloured edition by Ouroboros, Denmark 1995/2012

Earlier this year I wrote about the reprint of the historic 1889 Oswald Wirth deck by Adam McLean (here) now it's the turn to an other publication of this deck, also by a big tarot collector/authority, namely by K. Frank Jensen.

Frank's edition is an hand coloured edition of only 10 decks, a very small edition indeed but then even 10 is a lot when you have to carefully and cleanly paint 10 x 22 = 220 cards (size 88x143 mm).The Wirth tarot came in a faux book style box together with an illustrated 32 pages booklet by K. Frank Jensen.

The line drawings come from an anonymous, probably German, artist copying Wirth’s own drawings, as for the colours in Jensen's edition are based upon one of the only 2 versions of this deck know still to be in existence, the one used here belongs in a Japanese collection and was formerly part of the R.C.Bell collection of games.

The other deck is in the possession of Belgian collector Guido Gillabel, how it came into his possession is interesting, if I may say so, formerly the deck belonged to an other collector namely Hans Wesseling, after his death his widow asked Guido to sell of his deck, the Wirth got first sold to individuals behind the movie  Sherlock Holmes 2: A Game of Shadows. After the production of the film Guido was able to buy the deck back.  

I am not sure if there are still decks availlable, but for information about it you can always mail him here.

If you are curious to know the story of the link between this deck and the above mentioned movie Mary K. Greer posted it on her blog here

The Original Oswald Wirth Tarot Of 1889 published by Adam Maclean

Adam McLean continues to procure us all with wonderful decks we collectors love to have - and this time it's a reprint of the original 1889 edition of  the very first and still used esoteric deck created by Oswald Wirth. The tarot is published in a limited edition of 100 decks

At the time the deck was published they where colored by hand by unskilled (and badly paid) hands, often children. The used techniques namely by stencils means that the effect was often sloppy with colours overflowing and a messy look.

Adam has cleaned up the deck and is offering it on his website here and proceeds from this deck will go towards the Centre for Tarot Art.

There is also an other version around of the 1889 Wirth deck, handcoloured by K Frank Jensen, you can see it here

2 Sola Busca Tarot edtions by Wolfgang Mayer; Giordano Berti - Osvaldo Menegazzi

Yesterday was a special and memorable day for my collection, 2 new decks arrived or to better put it 2 editions of this historical important deck.
Both editions are high quality reproductions of the deck faithful to the original! The difference are ever so slight between both editions of the Sola Busca, there where both are offering the deck in it's original size the Mayer/Berti cards have a very discrete border around the cards rendering them a bit larger than the one reproduced by Osvaldo Menegazzi, the second difference is that the Il Meneghello Sola Busca is a bit darker in hue.

The Sola Busca is an important deck for many reasons, first it's age at the beginning at the official history of the Tarot, and it is the only complete 78 cards deck that has survived into our age. It was also the FIRST deck (and only for many centuries) to portray all minor arcana cards as ilustrated images not solely as a numerical representation of the suit emblems + court cards. The deck is said to have been a great inspiration to Pamela Colman-Smith who has drawn the Waite-Colman Tarot one of the best known, used, sold and used as inspiration for other tarot's deck of the 20th century, the influence can for example be seen in the 3 of Sword.

As a food starting point more information about the Sola Busca visit the Tarotpedia page dedicated to it.

The edition printed  in 1998 by Wolfgang Mayer is the full 78 cards deck, published in a limited hand numbered and signed (on the information card that is on side in German the other in English) edition of 700 decks and is now being offered by (tarot) historian Giordano Berti who obtained some copies and commissioned an Italian artisan to create a book shaped box for the deck.There is also a LWB provided with it by senor Berti
You can find more out about this deck at Berti's Facebook page here or at his website here or you contact him via email here.

Il Meneghello obtained from the Ministry of Heritage and Culture and Pinacoteca di Brera (where it is housed) the exclusive rights to reproduce the deck directly from the original cards, and is offering it in a limited edition of 400 majors only decks.
For more information about this edition see the Il Meneghello Facebook page here, this deck's Facebook page here or contact Christina Dorsini here.

Both decks deserve my 2 thumbs up and made this collector extremely happy and proud by their presence in my collection.

Tarot de Marseille Millenium Edition

I'm back with a new TdM (I do tend to post a lot of those don't I?)

This time it's not a historical reprint or a modern interpretation but rather a 'reconstruction'. Wilfried Houdouin worked more than 10 years upon this deck, and took as base for it the TdM type II and  the sacred geometry of the Metatron's cube this in an effort to create what in his opinion would be a the  true TdM as imagined by the original master cardmakes.
The cards first appeared in his book "Le code sacré du Tarot" (in French) and where later the same year published as a deck.

You can find more information (in French of English - to change languages go to the bottom of the page) on his website.

Tarocchi Minchiate "Al Leone"

Interesting decks with historic importance do not always have to be expensive or hard to find, proof of that is this interesting find I did on eBay during one of my daily overviews hunting down interesting decks to add to my collection.

The deck in question is a photo reproduction (thus looking excacly like it was printed a few centuries ago) of a Florentine Minchiate deck (from circa 1790) from the original found in the collection of the "Fournier cards Museum in Alva, situated in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain and published in 2004.The cards measure a nice115mm x 60mm on printed upon lightish stock, round corners with a gloss finish that take a bit away from it's authenticity. An interesting deck that enriches the historic section of my collection (there are still some left on eBay at a nice price)

Le Tarot de Charles VI by Hipeau, Gilles

Here is my second deck by Mr Gilles Hipeau (his other decks are in cooperation with Anne Hipeau but here I found no mention of her).This deck from 1982 is the recreation of the well known so called "Tarot de Charles VI", now housed at the "Bibliotheque Nationale de Paris", of that one only 16 majors and the page  of Swords survived.

The cards where redrawn and the missing ones recreated by the artist and published in 2 editions, one limited edition of 500 hand-painted decks and some unnumbered decks where left black and white, both editions came in the same navy blue lidded blue card board boxes decorated with 3 fleur-de-lys emblems and the title in gold ink.