Hoi Polloi - The Tarot 1973 edition (OOP)(RARITIES)(Preloved/käytetty)

Hoi Polloi - The Tarot

Kyseessä on todella spesiaalimpaa keräilyharvinaisuutta. Hoi Polloi on oma lukunsa tarotin uuden tulemisen historiassa. !972 julkaistu pakka nousi vasta vuosia myöhemmin halutuksi keräilyharvinaisuudeksi sen "kökön" värityksen ja äärimmäisen 60-70 lukuisen vintage fiiliksen vuoksi.

Vuoden 1972 setin tunnistaa erilaisesta kotelosta, se on ruskea ja vaakamallinen, Tämä nyt kyseessä oleva on 1973 versioon m uutettu violetti.

Näistä lienee myös versio jossa pelkkä tuckbox ja pienikokoinen guidebook. Hallussamme on myös tuohon kuuluvat kortit ja ohjekirjanen. Tuckboxia ei hankintaosasto ole koskaan nähnyt edes kuvissa!

Pakkauksen kunto on ikäänsä nähden hyvä. Ulkokotelon pitkä sivu on toiselta puolelta hieman revennyt, mutta silti ryhdikäs. Lisäkuvia saa pyytämällä. Kuvat ovat tästä myytävästä setistä.

Tarotpuodin hankintaosasto on näitä erikoisherkkuja jahdannyt illan hämärissä ja tuo ne ensi kertaa helposti saataville ihan tänne Suomen kotikamaralle! Because we can!

Hoi Polloi Tarot Review by Lynda Cowles

The year is 1972; the place, New York City. And as the giant of the tarot world we now know as US Games is busy trying to obtain copyright for the Rider-Waite-Smith (RWS) tarot, one small, independent company is releasing its own version of the deck. Named simply “The Tarot”, it is the last commercially-produced tarot to use Pamela Colman-Smith’s drawings before US Games becomes the only company legally allowed to do so.

Thirty-five years on and the Hoi Polloi Tarot, as it is now known (after Hoi Polloi Inc., the company that made it), is an acid-bright reminder of how times have changed. The colourful graphic style of the Hoi Polloi couldn’t be more different to Pixie’s detailed illustrations but there’s no doubt that the composition and contents of each card were lifted directly from her work under Arthur Waite’s instruction in 1909. Try that now, and you’d most likely find yourself in court.

But despite the obvious copying, there are subtle differences between the two decks, mainly in what the Hoi Polloi lacks. There is no stained glass window in the 4 of Swords, for example, and no garden leading to distant mountains in the Ace of Pentacles. The figure in the 5 of Cups is crying over spilled nothing, and the Hierophant appears to have mislaid his keys. If you intend to read with the deck and are familiar with the RWS, these changes may bother you but otherwise the sparse imagery gives the deck a clean, uncluttered look. More intriguing, perhaps, is the switching of Strength and Justice (in this deck, Justice is VIII and Strength is XI), pledging allegiance to the Marseille tradition over the RWS.

As a deck in its own right, the Hoi Polloi is vibrant and appealing. The gum-drop colours – mainly turquoise, orange, raspberry, lime green and purple - are accentuated with heavy black outlines and the sometimes uneven colouring makes it seem as if the deck was drawn using felt-tip pens. Some cards are spectacularly attractive, Strength being one of them; a few others seem either brash or muddy, but thankfully these cards are in the minority. One feature of note is the wide range of skin-tones featured: intentional or not, it’s an improvement on the RWS and one that gives the deck a multi-cultural feel.

The card titles are printed in an ornate, calligraphic font which looks a little out of place next to the stylised artwork. Each title sits in a coloured frame, which for the Minor Arcana is coloured-coded: orange for wands, red for cups, blue for swords and green for pentacles (for the Majors it seems anything goes). The colours used for the wands and cups are very similar and because of the variations in printing occasionally look identical but this is only a minor annoyance. The card backs are non-reversible, featuring a key design on an orange background.

At 4.25 x 2.5cm, the cards are a good size, easy to handle and shuffle. The dry varnish means the cards grip well but also have a tendency to stick together at times. However, this does make the cardstock feel thicker and more substantial than that used for most modern decks. The print quality is generally very good, with only a few cards suffering from minor blurriness caused by misalignment.

The Hoi Polloi is a rare thing: a collector’s deck which is also very readable, and one which will hopefully continue to stand the test of time.

Complete Details of Hoi Polloi Tarot

Publisher: Hoi Polloi Inc 1972
Deck Type: Tarot Deck
Cards: 78
Major Arcana: 22
Minor Arcana: 56
Deck Tradition: Rider-Waite-Smith
Minor Arcana Style: RWS-Based Scenes
Suits: Cups, Swords, Wands, Pentacles
Court Cards: Page, Knight, Queen, King
Major Titles: The Fool, The Magician, The High Priestess, The Empress, The Emperor, The Hierophant, The Lovers, The Chariot, Justice, The Hermit, Wheel of Fortune, Strength, The Hanged Man, Death, Temperance, The Devil, The Tower, The Star, The Moon, The Sun, Judgement, The World
The Fool is Not numbered
Strength is 11
Justice is 8
Card Size: 0.98 x 1.67 in. = 2.50cm x 4.25cm
Card Language: English
Card Back: Non-reversible
Back Design: golden ochre color with drawn skeleton key, white edge beyond a two-lined black border.

This deck is rare or out of print and isn't easy to find.