Description
The Smith-Waite Centennial Tarot Deck is a faithful reproduction of the original deck created by Pamela Colman Smith in 1909 under the direction of Arthur E. Waite. This classic tarot deck features full pictorial scenes in the muted colors chosen by “Pixie” herself. The deck was first issued in 2009 by U.S. Games Systems as part of the Pamela Colman Smith Commemorative Set. This stand-alone version is for collectors who want to keep their PCS sets pristine and yet do readings with this special deck. The 84-card deck, packaged in a tuck-in box, includes the standard 78 tarot cards plus four samples of Pixie’s non-tarot artwork: Much Ado About Nothing, The Gates of Dreamland, Christmas Carol and Once in a Dream.
About Pamela Colman Smith
Pamela Colman Smith was born February 16, 1878, in Middlesex, England to American parents. Her childhood years were spent between London, New York, and Kingston, Jamaica. During her teens, she traveled throughout England with the theatre company of Ellen Terry and Henry Irving. Thereafter, she began formal art training at the Pratt Institute of Brooklyn, graduating in 1897.
Although American by birth, she returned to England, where she became a theatrical designer for miniature theatre, and an illustrator — mainly of books, pamphlets and posters.
Around 1903, she joined the Order of the Golden Dawn. In 1909, under the guidance of Arthur Edward Waite, she undertook a series of seventy-eight allegorical paintings described by Waite as a rectified tarot pack. The designs, published in the same year by William Rider and Son, exemplify the mysticism, ritual, imagination, fantasy, and deep emotions of the artist.
Pamela Colman Smith would all but be forgotten except for the seventy-eight tarot paintings known as the Rider-Waite Tarot pack. She would no doubt be astonished and gladdened to know that today the deck touches the hearts and emotions of millions of people.
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