Joan Marie wrote: ↑08 Mar 2020, 12:10
This brings up something I've wondered about for a long time.
The Thoth deck has been printed and reprinted so many times over such a long span of time that I really would like to know what the original works of art looked like, how green were the greens etc.
Crowley writes a lot about the use of colour, he's very specific. Lady Harris worked very closely with him to get it right.
But over time with changing techniques in printing and just different printing set-ups, the colours and contrast and saturation etc. have no doubt been altered again and again.
People have raised the same points about how to determine exactly what the colors were really supposed to be.
There's been endless discussion and debate about every nuance of the Thoth deck, it's art, creation, etc.
I'm certainly no authority by any means, so in this particular case, regarding this "gold box" edition, I can only provide the following:
Quote from the OTO:
"Around 2007, O.T.O. went to considerable trouble and expense—with very supportive assistance from AGMüller and the Yorke Collection curators—to digitally rephotograph the deck in high resolution, using a (rented!) $100,000 Phase One camera. We even did the typesetting and layout for the new deck in multiple languages, including English, for free—all in the interests of finally getting a version out that would meet Crowley’s and Lady Harris’ exacting standards. We’ve been very disappointed—thus far, it has only appeared in German.
I have compared this printing of the deck to the original paintings, and it is almost perfect. The original paintings have not faded over time, as some have claimed (the originals have always been protected from light, barring brief exhibitions, and are stable Winsor and Newton pigments). The problem is that prior printings have been simply negligent about color correction—which was admittedly harder in the pre-digital era—and in some cases, colors have been “pushed” to get an effect the publisher likes. Matching the subtlety of the paintings themselves is much harder, but clearly worthwhile."
I have posted 5 images of the cards of this edition with the most current English edition to show the differences. The images have more detail and appear softer, with an overall glow.
The Aeon (XX / Judgement) card is a good example for these improvements: The figure in the front is a lot more translucent than in earlier editions and blends in more with the background.
Comparing the 2 editions, it appears as if previously editions have altered the colors and contrast of the original paintings.
The card backs have been re-designed as well, minus the white border and new aspect ratio.
The aspect ratio of the images is also true to the original paintings.
The card numbers on top are smaller and the type fonts less intrusive. The cards are a overall bit smaller than the standard sized deck, although most of the size difference is due to the added grey borders on the earlier editions.
The actual image size on this edition is 3 3/8 x 2 1/4, the older edition has an image size of 3 1/2 x 2 1/4.
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For the purposes of more easily identifying the various printings of the Thoth decks, The Tarot Garden revived this from their old database:
Crowley's "Thoth" Tarot: Edition Comparison Table
Posted by Jeannette Roth on Jul 14th 2019
"Note: This article and the accompanying table are a transfer from the library of the old Tarot Garden site. It was originally posted in 2006".
http://tarotgarden.com/blog/crowleys-th ... son-table/