The 1909 Art Restoration Tarot - C in London (Preloved/Used)

C in London Neat cards

The 1909 'Roses and Lilies' deck was the first ever Rider-Waite deck created. It was the deck from which the entire Lineage of Rider-Waite Decks was born. It is the most historically significant and the most authoritative Rider-Waite deck of all. The 'Roses and Lilies' deck contained the original imagery—now widely recognizable as the RWS Tarot cards—which all later Decks reproduced from, including the 1910 Pam A version that immediately followed. It is said that only five copies of this 1909 deck are known to exist today as the original plates were destroyed in WWII.

Now, The 1909 Art Restoration Deck is a 2020 perfect replica of this legendary 1909 'Roses and Lilies' deck. The idea is to restore the 1909 deck with the same treatment of historical art, with minimal editing to preserve a maximum level of original details. A proper art restoration. This deck candidly reveals the minute printing artifacts from 1909 as historical features, showing the tonal variations in ink that reveal the travel of printing blocks, pen marks and brush marks involved. It retains the overprinting of color blocks, minor misalignments and other charming imperfections that are characteristic of its creation and printing process unique of its time. This restoration reveals an entire spectrum of finer details previously lost and unseen.

Throughout history, Rider-Waite Decks were reproduced with technological limits of their time. It was common to see oversaturate reapplied colors and sloppily traced line-work adding to an accumulative drift over the years from the original. However we now have the superior digital technologies with incredibly high definition and precision. The 1909 ARD is able to surpass the century's worth of replication errors by channeling directly from the historic source, restoring its full glory in unprecedented detail and exactness. Few modern Decks have attempted this seriousness in historical accuracy and production value. It sets a new reference standard in the Rider-Waite system for those seeking the purest connection to its historical source.

A note on Restoration methodology. The 1909 ARD uses high resolution scans for its initial survey and inspection prior to the actual restoration process. A meticulous manual cleaning and repairing process on each of the 78 cards was conducted to conservatively decontaminate the excess dirt that obscured the artwork. Color Restoration is carefully calibrated to ensure a consistent and accurate preservation of colors and details. This process restored the look and feel of the one-of-five 1909 specimen deck with all its glories to the fullest possible extent, only now achieved digitally with full pixel and color perfection and printed onto brand new cards.

Restored by C in London 2020

First Edition
Created with DriveThruCards in June 2020. 78 standard Rider-Waite Tarot cards + 5 bonus cards: Portrait of The Empress and Averaged Major Arcana and others