Fey Tarot
Fey
Fairies
78 cards + a title card + an advertising card with a LWB in a cardboard tuck box. <br /><br />Cards measure 12 cm tall x 6.6 cm wide. The card stock is very flexible with a smooth, semi-matte finish. This deck could be easily riffle-shuffled without damage. <br /><br />The card back design is fully reversible. <br /><br />Strength is VIII and Justice is XI. The Fool is numbered 0. <br /><br />Suits are Chalices, Pentacles, Wands, and Swords. The court cards are Knave, Knight, Queen, and King. <br /><br />The minor arcana are scenic in the RWS tradition, though this deck is not a clone. <br /><br />As is common in many Lo Scarabeo decks, the cards titles are multi-lingual. The English titles are printed at the tops of the cards, with titles in 4 additional languages (Italian, Spanish, French, and German) appearing along the bottom borders. <br /><br />On a personal note, though I disliked this deck in the years after it was first published, I've warmed to it now. Looking back at it for the first time in years, I'm struck by how talented the artist is, and how consistent this deck is. There are many fey and fairy-themed decks out there, but few are as original and readable as this one. <br /><br />A note about the publication date: I've found two different dates of publication for this deck in various sources online: 2002 and 2004. On the back of the LWB, the copyright date is given as 2002, but I suspect that <strong>either</strong> the 78 card, mass-market release of the deck did not take place until 2004 <strong>or</strong> that there were 2 different printings. <br /><br />I don't have documented proof of this, but I was just starting to collect tarot decks in 2005, and I remember a lot of buzz and conversation about this deck, as if it had only recently been released. A 2004 release checks out with what was normally the pattern of distribution for LS decks -- that a new deck would be available in European markets first, and then available in the U.S. about 6 to 9 months later.<br /><br />On the other hand, Diane Wilkes of Tarot Passages <a href="http://www.tarotpassages.com/fey.htm" target="_blank" title="Tarot Passages - Fey Tarot" rel="noreferrer noopener">very clearly notes</a> that this was a 2002 release.
Aghem, Mara (artist)
Minetti, Riccardo (author)
Lo Scarabeo
2002 / 2004
78 cards
Multilingual
RWS
ISBN 978-0738706528
Albano-Waite Tarot
Rider-Waite-Smith clone
78 cards + 2 different title cards + a standard LWB in a cardboard tuckbox.<br /><br />The cards measure 2.75" wide x 4.75" long. The cardstock is sturdy yet flexible, with a smooth, lightly glossy finish. <br /><br />The card backs are white, with a gold sun design in the center that is non-reversible.<br /><br />This tarot is a recolor/clone of the RWS, and as such, adheres to the RWS system of card naming, numbering, and suit designations.<br /><br />The LWB notes that this is a "fasimilie" of the original 1968 edition of the Albano-Waite.
Albano, Frankie
U.S. Games
© 1991 (<em>date in the LWB</em>) <br />© 1968, 1987 (<em>dates on the box</em>)
78 cards
English
RWS
ISBN 0-88079-466-6
Library Tarot
Libraries
Librarians
23 major arcana + 5 additional cards in a thin, cardboard tuck box.<br /><br />Cards measure 12 cm tall x 7 cm wide. <br /><br />The card stock is very flexible, with a linen textured finish. <br /><br />The card backs are fully reversible. <br /><br />The art is clearly influenced by the Rider-Waite-Smith, yet it isn't attempting to clone the RWS. Each card is set in a library-related scene, and the cards have been retitled in keeping with the overall theme. For example, The Tower has become The Stacks, and The World has become The Collection.<br /><br />Kindness (<em>Strength</em>) is VIII is and Equal Access (<em>Justice</em>) is XI. The Nincompoops (<em>Fool</em>) is numbered 0.<br /><span><br />An alternate version of the Wheel of Fortune card is included, named the Wheel of Misfortune. Hence, the deck includes 23 major arcana instead of the usual 22. <br /><br />In addition to the 23 majors, there are 5 additional cards titled The Questioner, Conspiracy Theorist, The Mis-Printer, Enthusiasm, and The Series Hunter. These cards aren't numbered; rather, asterisks are used in lieu of numbers.<br /><br />This deck was initially marketed and funded through a Kickstarter campaign, and was also marketed on social media. There was also <a href="http://librarycomic.com/custom-library-tarot-contest/" target="_blank" title="Library Tarot contest" rel="noreferrer noopener">a limited-time contest</a> for library staff, the winner of which would receive a special customized deck featuring themself plus two colleagues. (I do not know who won the contest.)<br /><br />More information about the creator, Gene Ambaum, can be found <a href="http://librarycomic.com/about/" target="_blank" title="Information about Gene Ambaum" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.</span>
Ambaum, Gene
<a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ambaum/the-library-tarot" target="_blank" title="Library Tarot Kickstarter" rel="noreferrer noopener">Library Tarot -- Kickstarter Campaign</a>
Library Comic
2019
28 cards
English
RWS
Rider Waite Tarot (1971)
Golden Dawn
This particular deck is my significant other's personal copy of the "standard" Rider Waite deck from U.S. Games, with the 1971 copyright on the cards.
Cards are 12 cm tall x 7 cm wide.
We have no box and no title card or LWB with this copy. We do, however, have one blank card with it. It is housed in a green faux suede drawstring bag that I hand-sewed for it.
It is in good shape, but has edge wear -- you can tell it has been used and shuffled, though no cards are dog-eared or bent.
Most likely printed in the 1980s; he purchased it used in the 1990s.
Suits are Swords, Cups, Pentacles, and Wands.
Strength is 8 and Justice is 11.
Court names are Page, Knight, Queen, and King.
Art is fully scenic, and card backs are a reversible plaid pattern.
Arthur Edward Waite (concept and direction) and Pamela Colman Smith (artist)
U.S. Games
USG
1971 (copyright)
78 cards
English
RWS
Golden Botticelli Tarot
Fine art
Italian art--Sandro Botticelli
78 cards + a title card and an advertising card + an LWB in a standard cardboard tuck box.<br /><br /><span>Cards measure 12 cm tall x 6.6 cm wide. The card stock is very flexible, with a smooth, mostly-matte finish. This deck could easily be riffle-shuffled.<br /><br />The card back design is reversible.<br /><br />Justice is VIII and Strength is XI. The Fool is numbered 0.<br /><br />Suits are Chalices, Wands, Swords, and Pentacles. The court cards are Knave, Knight, Queen, and King.<br /><br />The minor arcana are scenic and follow the RWS style.<br /><br />The gold foil embellishment on these cards is astoundingly beautiful; the scans don't do it justice. And the art stands on its own as magnificent, as well. This is among my favorite decks published by Lo Scarabeo.</span>
Atanassov, Atanas A.
Lo Scarabeo
© 2007
78 cards
Multiple languages
RWS
ISBN 978-0738712314
Golden Tarot of Klimt
Art--Gustav Klimt
Fine art
78 cards + a title card and an advertising card + an LWB in a standard cardboard tuck box.<br /><br /><span>Cards measure 12 cm tall x 6.6 cm wide. The card stock is very flexible, with a mostly-matte finish. This deck could easily be riffle-shuffled.<br /><br />The card back design is reversible.<br /><br />Justice is VIII and Strength is XI. The Fool is numbered 0.<br /><br />Suits are Chalices, Wands, Swords, and Pentacles. The court cards are Knave, Knight, Queen, and King.<br /><br />The minor arcana are scenic and follow the RWS tradition to a large extent, though there are limitations given the deck's theme and artisitic style.<br /><br />The gold foil embellishment on these cards is visually stunning; the scans don't do it justice. And the art stands on its own as brilliant, even if the cards had not been gold stamped. I've yet to run into a deck from artist Atanas A. Atanssov that I didn't love.<br /></span>
Atanassov, Atanas A.
Lo Scarabeo
© 2005
78 cards
Multilingual
RWS
ISBN 073870790-2
Prairie Tarot
Prairie Tarot: A Tarot of the American West
American West
Cowboys
Native Americans
Nineteenth Century United States
79 cards in a 2 piece lidded cardboard box. No LWB and no title card. The 79th card is an extra, the Jackalope.
Cards measure 12 cm tall x 7 cm wide (4.75 inches tall x 2.75 inches wide).
The card stock is flexible, with a lightly glossy finish.
Card backs are reversible -- black with a wagon wheel image in the center.
The major arcana are unnumbered.
The minor arcana are fully scenic, and are somewhat similar in arrangement to the RWS images.
Suits are Pentacles, Cups, Swords, and Wands -- though I only know this by looking at the deck's website. Looking at the cards themselves, the Pentacles suit looks more like Coins, and the Wands suit looks more like Posts or Pencils.
Courts are Page, Knight, Queen, and King.
Annoyingly, the artist's name does not appear on the box or on the cards. However, the information is readily available online, including on the deck's website and in a discussion thread on Aeclectic Tarot.
I paid $24.95 USD for my copy.
Ator, Robin
<p><a href="http://www.glowinthedarkpictures.com/prairietarot/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">http://www.glowinthedarkpictures.com/prairietarot/index.htm</a><a href="http://tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=130873" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">l</a></p>
<p><a href="http://tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=130873" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">http://tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=130873</a></p>
Glow in the Dark
2011
79 cards
English
RWS
978-0-9728788-3-8
Tarot of the Princesses
World mythology
World history
World literature
<span>78 cards + a title card and a publisher's information card + an LWB in a standard cardboard tuck box.</span><br /><br /><span>Cards measure 12 cm tall x 6.6 cm wide. The card stock is very flexible, with a smooth, mostly-matte finish. This deck could easily be riffle-shuffled.<br /><br /></span>The card back design is reversible.<br /><br />No titles or suit names appear on the cards themselves. Instead, suits are distinguished by different icons in their borders. The LWB identifies each card by its title, and aligns most of the cards with famous women from history and literature.<br /><br />Justice is VIII and Strength is XI. The Fool is numbered 0.<br /><br />The suits are Pentacles, Chalices, Swords, and Wands. The court cards are Knave, Knight, Queen, and King. It is challenging to distinguish the Knaves from the Knights, in that their symbols are very similar.<br /><br />The minor arcana are fully scenic, and loosely follow the RWS tradition.<br /><br />As with some of Severino Baraldi's other work, the female characters don't look like real women -- instead, they look like busty, lusty fantasy women. Though this deck ostensibly focuses on women, it is not a female-friendly deck, nor is it a feminist deck. Also, this deck's art is sometimes very culturally insensitive, even insulting.
Baraldi, Severino (artist)
Nativo, Floreana (author)
Lo Scarabeo
© 2009
78 cards
Multiple languages
RWS / Mixed
ISBN 978-8883958748
Diamond Tarot
Fantasy
Golden Dawn
78 cards + 2 extra cards with publisher & advertising information, with a standard LWB in French, in a standard cardboard tuck box.
Cards measure 12 cm tall x 7 cm wide.
The card stock is very flexible and has a smooth, matte finish.
This is a French language copy; the text on the box is in French, the text of the LWB is entirely in French, and the card titles are printed only in French.
I have seen images of English language cards online at various sites (including Aeclectic Tarot), so I know that the French language edition wasn't the only edition.
Each card features a miniature, brightly re-colored RWS image in the center, with a bright, psychedelic/abstract border.
The suits and courts are the same as that of the traditional RWS (though the names are in French in this case, of course). The numbering of the major arcana is the same as that of the traditional RWS.
The card backs are reversible.
Bergoint, Marie-Louise
Holitzka, Klaus
Smith, Pamela Colman
Waite, Arthur Edward, 1857-1942
AGMüller, Switzerland
AGM
1997
78 cards
French
RWS
3-905219-21-2
Forest Folklore Tarot
New Forest UK, Folklore, Fairies
78 cards plus a title card and an informational card, with a LWB, in a standard cardboard tuck box.
The cards have a high gloss, sticky finish that makes them difficult to handle and shuffle. This is typical of the Italian printed U.S. Games' decks of this period.
Backs are reversible.
Strength is 8 and Justice is 11. The Fool is numbered 0.
The art is a blend of watercolor and photography, and the theme is based around the New Forest area of the U.K.
Suits are Wands, Cups, Swords, and Rings. Courts are Lady, Knight, Queen, and King.
The Aces feature animals prominently -- for example, the Ace of of Rings features an owl, with a ring hanging from a branch below it.
Beverley-Smith, Kessia
Purchase from Amazon.com:<br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000VV2E6Q/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=theosbotaroco-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B000VV2E6Q">Deck: Forest Folklore Tarot by Beverley-Smith, Kessia (DFORFOL)</a>
U.S. Games, United States
USG
2004
78 cards
English
RWS
1-57281-475-6
Shadowland Tarot
Shadow work
Spooky creatures
78 cards with a 208-page softcover guidebook in a large cardboard shelf box with a hinged lid. There's no title card.<br /><br />Cards measure 12.1 cm tall x 6.7 cm wide. The cardstock is reasonably flexible, with a smooth, matte finish on both sides. The cards have gilded gold edges which causes the cards to stick together at first.<br /><br />The backs are completely reversible.<br /><br />Strength is 8 and Justice is 11. The Seeker (<em>Fool</em>) is numbered 0.<br /><br />Suits are Swords, Wands, Pentacles, and Cups. The court cards are Page, Knight, Queen, and King.<br /><br />The minor arcana are scenic and follow the RWS tradition. This deck would be "readable" by anyone familiar with the RWS meanings.<br /><br />The shelf box appears and feels sturdy enough, but mine is already coming apart at one corner -- though I've barely handled it, and just received the set in the mail a few days ago. (<em>Personal note</em>: I taped up the damaged corner with some archival book mending tape to keep it from coming further apart.)<br /><br />Though all of the marketing information for the Shadowland mentions <strong>March</strong> 2020 as the release date, I purchased and received my copy from Amazon.com in <strong>February</strong> 2020.
Bodirsky, Monica
<a href="https://www.schifferbooks.com/shadowland-tarot-6885.html" target="_blank" title="Shadowland Tarot (Schiffer website)" rel="noreferrer noopener">Shadowland Tarot (Schiffer website)</a>
Red Feather (an imprint of Schiffer Publishing)
© 2020
<em>The Shadowland Tarot</em> by Monica Bodirsky -- 208 page softcover companion book included with the set.
78 cards
English
RWS
ISBN 9780764359033
Magna Veritas Tarot
RWS
78 cards plus a signed and numbered title card, in a handmade thin cardboard lidded box. The bottom half of the box is folded, but not taped or glued - essentially the box top holds the box bottom in place. <br /><br />No LWB or booklet included.<br /><br />My copy is 21 of a limited edition of 100.<br /><br />The deck also came with a bookmark made from a Page of Cups card.<br /><br />According to information from the deck's creators found here <a href="http://boltcutterdesign.wordpress.com/2011/03/19/the-magna-veritas-tarot-revisited-wtf/" target="_blank">http://boltcutterdesign.wordpress.com/2011/03/19/the-magna-veritas-tarot-revisited-wtf/</a>, "A total of 52 decks out of an edition of 100 were sold. 2 decks were given as gifts. There are 46 decks remaining. They are <em><strong>NOT</strong></em> being sold through our website." That information was published on March 19, 2011. The same blog post indicates that they may sell some of the remaining copies on eBay.<br /><br />Reversible backs.<br /><br />Suits are Wands, Swords, Cups, and Pentacles. Courts are Page, Knight, Queen, and King. The Fool is retitled The Jester and is numbered 22, but the number is printed in reverse.<br /><br />The entire deck is numbered sequentially up through 78 (which is the King of Pentacles), in addition to being given their "normal" numbering.<br /><br />Strength is 8 and Justice is 11.<br /><br />Artistically, the deck is charmingly and deliberately "antiqued" with a sepia-toned effect throughout. The art style is a combination of drawing and digitally altered photography (you can tell, for instance, that some of the faces began as photos)..<br /><br />The cards are fully scenic.<br /><br />This would be a difficult deck to shuffle because of the long rectangular shape, though the cardstock is sturdy and flexible. The cards have a matte finish that feels good to the touch.<br />
BoltCutter Design / Mike M. (cannot find his last name)
<a href="http://www.boltcutterdesign.com./index.html" target="_blank">http://www.boltcutterdesign.com./index.html</a><br /><br /><a href="http://boltcutterdesign.wordpress.com/2011/03/19/the-magna-veritas-tarot-revisited-wtf/" target="_blank">http://boltcutterdesign.wordpress.com/2011/03/19/the-magna-veritas-tarot-revisited-wtf/</a>
BoltCutter Design / Oblivion Brand
2010
78 cards
English
RWS