Original Rider Waite

The record

One of the first decks I owned was the standard Rider Waite, published by U.S. Games/AGM Muller. Indeed, this is the deck that everyone is familiar with. As you learn more about the tarot, you quickly begin to discover that the Rider Waite has been ‘cloned’ on countless occasions, the black and white drawings being clothed by many artists in sometimes tasteful, often outrageous colours. Most people would be very surprised to learn that the US Games edition is also a ‘clone’ and not the original. The print plates for the Rider Waite were destroyed during the London Blitz. Rider and Co did not put out another edition until the seventies when they re-packaged what was in effect the US Games edition, manufactured by AGM Muller. When Stuart Kaplan re-published the deck, he took the black and white line drawings and had them recoloured, closely following Waite’s personal copy as reference. Waite’s daughter Sybil gave her permission, hence this deck’s ‘authorised’ status. Although the US Games Rider Waite deck is itself a ‘clone’ it remains the most accurate reproduction available of this deck in what would have been its original colour livery. More recently Rider and Co, in conjunction w

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