Touchstone Tarot - a new edition

[Nemia]

There is a new reprint of the Touchstone Tarot by Kat Black, one of my favourite decks. If you want to see how it looks: Boho Tarot did an interesting walkthrough.

To be completely honest: I think the version I have is nicer. The cardstock is matte, the frames more elaborate (should I buy the new one to trim it??? or would that be excessive????), and I confess that I loved the old backs more. BUT it's the wonderful artwork of Kat Black, pushing the pixels on well-known and less-well-known Baroque paintings. The effect is weird, especially if you know the originals - the lighting is off, sometimes styles clash, but the weirdness adds to the charm (even more so in the Golden Tarot that utilizes artwork made before the invention/discovery of modern perspective, which makes it easier to accept that the compositions can be a bit wonky).

The great thing about the Touchstone is the warmth and intensitiy of the colours, and the expressive faces. Kat Black put each of these characters in the right tarot environment. You look at these people and feel that you know them - that they have their stories - their wisdom - and I find reading with it very rewarding, especially in "human relationship readings" concerning family and friends.

Oh, Sunset Bough did a nice comparison of the two editions, the OOP and the new one.

If I'm not totally wrong, Kat Black was the first artist to use artworks of the European/Western canon in this iconoclastic manner, in digital collages that break up the originals to create tarot cards. Lots of other collage decks followed, some mixed media, some with photography, all of them interesting. The Golden and Touchstone were a breakthrough and I like both of them dearly, probably the Touchstone more than the Golden. The Golden stuck to the RWS formula very very tightly, the Touchstone took more liberties, both are amazing decks.

I'm very glad it's no longer OOP.

ETA: One thing though. I can't believe they went for an Uncial font! That doesn't suit the deck at all. Didn't they have art historians on the team? The font says: Irish, the art says: Italian and Flemish. That doesn't go together at all. For me, wow, that's a real step back from the edition I have. It used a perfecty acceptable font that might have been used in the Baroque era. But ouch, the Uncial kills it for me.

What a pity! If you're not picky like me, you're lucky and you'll love the deck!

Considering the frames: the old version frame imitates wood and the card name is printed on a label like you see on old paintings. It gives the illusion of a painting.

For the new version, they added an inner passepartout and gold - the gold goes with the Baroque esthetic but the white passepartout is a total miss. Nobody puts oil paintings in white passepartout frames. And the labels for the card names are too decorated and too modern.

In short, the old version created an illusion of a collection of old master paintings. The new version changes some in my opinion vital elements of this illusion. Again, for most people, this shouldn't be a big deal.

[Papageno]

nice review...thank you.

that's a very thought provoking observation about the font, I'm inclined to agree with your assessment.

judging only by the image files, the colors of US Games re-issue, look oversaturated....something they've often been criticized for
in the past.....however, from a purely commercial point of view, most consumers prefer oversaturated, rich color palettes.

Frankly, I think Kat Black has an extremely fine eye, it's not easy creating a digital collage....trying to achieve a visually convincing composition with disparate images, while keeping elements of light, shadow and perspective in harmonious balance.

I even like her choice for the card backs better than the US Games version, although I completely understand their choice to use
a more elaborate, tapestry-like design.

I completely agree with your statement:

"For the new version, they added an inner passepartout and gold - the gold goes with the Baroque esthetic but the white passepartout is a total miss. Nobody puts oil paintings in white passepartout frames. And the labels for the card names are too decorated and too modern."

I personally don't like the frame at all, Kat Blacks original pays homage to the tradition of oil on wood board very effectively.....and it's a lot more subtle than those frames.

......they also made a critical oversight on the brass name labels.....unlike the original printing, the labels on the US Games versions
are missing the nails on either side, or in this case, the 4 corners to hold the plaques in place.
They simply plopped the image of a brass plaque onto the bottom of the card without considering that there should be nails to hold them in place......it's all about the details.

While I love the Golden Tarot, Kat Black definitely raised the bar with her Touchstone and cleared that hurdle beautifully.
It is a masterpiece, both technically and aesthetically and she blessed this deck with great subtlety and finesse.

[Parzival]

I have the original edition. As mentioned, the more antiquated fonts and name plate on the original fit in better with the Renaissance aesthetic, to me at least. Also, the new white frames bring in some lightness to the dusky portraits, but do not fit in to the Renaissance ambience-- maybe a welcome modernization to some, not so to me. The color saturation would be fine with the original frame. All in all, the original still rings true and beautiful. Some majors are outstanding, like Strength and Wheel. Glad to have it for another look, and to do a three-card reading.