Mystery Deck

I'm wondering if anyone can help... A Tarot friend of mine, Fern Mercier from New Zealand, recently mentioned that she and a friend each bought a deck while in London in 1974, but threw away the boxes. Fern has used this deck for years and has derived a lot of pleasure from it but wonders what the provenance of the deck may be. At a convention we attended recently, Mary Greer suggested they may well have been a copied or redrawn version of a Marseille deck for a particular occult/esoteric magazine of the time which the magazine published themselves - because they have no titles. Anyway, any clues or insights would be appreciated :)

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Comment by Rowan Pendragon on August 9, 2010 at 8:48am: I would agree that it looks like a re-draw of a Marseille deck. If you look at the list of Marseille decks on Aeclectic (http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/marseilles.shtml) you'll see this looks much like those. The deck by Camoin and Jodorowski shows two similar cards to what you have here. It's definitely similar but not identical in terms of being a remake of a Marseille deck. I do find that coloring a bit unusual (lots of pink tones, something not usual in one of these decks) and the fact that there are no titles on the cards (also, not usual). I did a whole bunch of poking around looking for a version like what you have here and came up with nothing. I would have to say that Mary's thoughts are probably right on track. It's likely that this was a reproduction for something back at the time. I have part of a reproduced deck of Marseille cards from a company that puts out the Mind, Body, Spirit binder collections. Much like what your friend has it's similar but not quite identical.

Comment by Stella on August 13, 2010 at 11:07pm: Hello Rowan, thanks for your reply… it certainly is a possibility! I've been waiting to hear back from the lady in NZ with regards to some feedback I had from a collector in the UK… seems it could possibly be the RIGEL deck, published in 1975 by Rigel Press… but it is yet to be confirmed, so I'm keeping options open!

Comment by Stella on August 25, 2010 at 9:55pm: First, thanks for your imput on the show today Rowan… you are great to listen to.

Just thought I'd let it be known the mystery deck did turn out to be the Rigel deck.

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