View Full Version : The Green Sheaf
Well, let me explain the situation.
I've been making a research for Yone Noguchi(1875-1947), a Japanese poet who achieved some fame in the late Victorian London. He was a friend of W.B.Yeats, AE, and Pamela Colman Smith. And I found Noguchi contributed one of his poems to No.11 of the magazine "The Green Sheaf"(edited and published by PCS). Naturally I wanted it. And (perhaps unfortunately) I found it. Or, precisely, I found "them" because eight issues of "The Green Sheaf" were on sale as a set. And the price was ... .... I swore a lot against LCD and made a fatal click. Good bye, new motorcycle! Good bye, new highpowered PC! And welcome my new treasure, PCS's hand coloured rarest magazine.
I 'd like to share the pictures in the magazine with my friends so I'm now scanning and uploading them in my website. You can see exquisite illustrations of Cecil French, AE, W.T.Horton, Dorothy Ward etc as well as those of PCS. Their works are also important for PCS study because their coloring was done by PCS.
http://www7.ocn.ne.jp/~elfindog/grshhead.htm
Perhaps you already saw many of them in the Kaplan Encyclopedia III -- but they were BW whereas mine are full colour so worth a looking, I believe. I'm going to upload one issue a week.
notice : my website is written in Japanese. Some parts are in English so please make a guessing and click! (lol)
caridwen
07-09-2006, 01:59
They are just amazing! Thank you so much for posting them:D
jackdaw*
07-09-2006, 05:53
What a find, roppo! I can't wait to see more! Thank you so much for sharing these.
manhattan9thgate
07-09-2006, 06:44
that's really fascinating.
thank you for sharing with us.
you have the "collectors curse" but don't worry, there will always be a better motorcycle and more advanced powerful computer, but opportunities like these are often once or twice in a lifetime.
Thank you ever so much for posting this gorgeous & rarely seen images. These are really important for PCS admirers to see.
Fantastic resource (yet again!)
The long and varied professional carreer of Pamela Colman Smith
often leads me to believe~ HER Tarot was almsot finished before
Waite offered to assist with getting it published by Rider & Co. ;)
She knew her way around, as her letter to Stieglitz clearly shows,
and it likely never occurred to her Waite would steal all the credit.
I've just uploaded all the pictures of "The Green Sheaf" no2. This issue has 16pages and lots of good illustrations as you see --
http://www7.ocn.ne.jp/~elfindog/grshtwo.htm
I appended explanatory notes in English to some pictures.
And THE TREAT OF THE WEEK! Here you are -- "BLUE BEARD" pictures by Pamela Colman Smith (1913).
http://www7.ocn.ne.jp/~elfindog/blubear.htm
Colored top page and three BW illustrations. Unfortunnatly the paper and ink used in the PCS's picture pages seem rather bad. Only 93 years past and they become far much browner compared to the letter-only-pages. I had to use brightness /contrast controll of photoshop to render the pictures clearer.
And perhaps old news for some of you but a news for me anyway. PCS's first book "Annancy Stories" is now available as a new reprint at USD13.50. I bought it from Amazon Japan.
All in all, enjoy!
Thank you for your generosity in sharing this, Roppo. I particularly like "La Tranquillita" by W.T.Horton.
jackdaw*
14-09-2006, 02:19
They are beautiful!
Thank you for sharing these, roppo.
closrapexa
14-09-2006, 02:50
Why is it that the Bluebeard pictures seem better drawn than the RWS, which can seem kind of crude in some places?
Rainbow Aurora
14-09-2006, 10:01
Why is it that the Bluebeard pictures seem better drawn than the RWS, which can seem kind of crude in some places?You make a good point, and ask a very interesting
question, but isn't it a little bit like asking:
What is the difference between bread and cake?
Rainbow
Thank you so much again, Roppo! The Bluebeard images are really exceptional.
I've just uploaded all the pictures in "The Green Sheaf" no.5. They are very interesting and fascinating, all of them.
http://www7.ocn.ne.jp/~elfindog/grshfive.htm
And very good news for PCS fans. The Library of the University of Pittsburgh kindly shows us twelve issues of "A Broad Sheet"(1902) on their website. They call it "Jack B. Yeats Collection" and perhaps we might have some complain about this. Anyway thanks a lot to Pittsburgh!
http://images.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/i/image/image-idx?c=yeats&page=index
Their images are fine indeed. I put the A3 printouts into wooden frames for my personal use. The result is quite satisfactory as you see :
http://www7.ocn.ne.jp/~elfindog/bst01.jpg
And finally, THE MARVEL OF THE WEEK!!!
As I said, I've been making a research for Yone Noguchi and my labour got rewarded. An old book by Noguchi arrived today and I found a treasure in it. To be short, Noguchi described his days in London literary circle and discussed many famous poets and writers he knew personally. And when he wrote about Yeats he showed the following picture --
http://www7.ocn.ne.jp/~elfindog/wbybyp.jpg
My friends, have you ever seen this before? If you have, please tell me so. At least I've never seen this before!
My friends, have you ever seen this before?It's brilliant! Yeats was a snappy dresser~ and his hair
was forever brushed just so with that careless charm.
And like Pamela, he died penniless in a faraway place...
living life the way he wanted. Fame can be so fickle. ;)
*
A Broad Sheet No. 10 has a very interesting image...
we can easily see an early view of The 4 of Swords.
PS: Annancy Tales arrived yesterday~ illustrated! :laugh:
Roppo: Thank you for posting these. You did a great job and a great service.
Did you notice that Horton's picture in GS#2 looks almost exactly like the Hanged Man's head? And the text you quoted from William Blake could be taken as a text on the Hanged Man.
Mary
Hi Tahuti,
The Blake text is not my quotation; it was originally there. Every one denies the talent (if any) of W.T.Horton, but my own feeling is that he is not so bad.
Further informations for the Yeats portrait by Pamela Colman Smith. It is on the p.179 of "Thirteen Years in England and America" by Yonejirou Noguchi (Shunyodo, Tokyo, 1905). It's a rare book of Noguchi's early days, half written in Japanese, half in English. Later (1924) Noguchi wrote that he had a portrait of Yeats hung on the wall of his study, A bad news is that his house was burnt down by the air raid of 1945. I'm not sure whether the portrait survived or not. If I can find and get the item, I'll hold a little exhibition of PCS in Japan (lol).
A Broad Sheet No. 10 has a very interesting image...
we can easily see an early view of The 4 of Swords.
Here shown with image flipped to match the card~;)
Now all the pictures from "The Green Sheaf" no.1,2,5,7,8,9,10,and 11 can be seen on my website with some explanatory notes.
http://www7.ocn.ne.jp/~elfindog/grshhead.htm
I have yet to find other 5 issues.
My own feeling is that the coloring of standard RWS tarot is rather loud, vulgar or plain compared to those found in the magazine. Just look at the picture of angel of "The Garden" with rich blue.
http://www7.ocn.ne.jp/~elfindog/grsh10c.jpg
I wish someone with fine skill in watercolor should re-color RWS following PCS touch.
I'm going to make a further research. Wish me good luck.
This is so beautiful!
Roppo, words can not express how glad and grateful I am that you let your Motorbike go AND that you so generously share those pieces of art!
Before I came to AT I was a fan of Pamela Colman Smith without access to more knowledge than that picture and the mini-bio in the LWB. Now, mainly thanks to Holly (is she ~Maria?) and to you... I am thrilled, touched, happy!
Oh, hello Vetch, I'm very glad you enjoyed the Green Sheaf images.
Today I received a rather dirty softback book titled "HENRY IRVING" written by Christopher St. John, publsihed by the Green Sheaf, London, 1905. Yes, it's one of rare titles from PCS's short lived publishing project.
I believe the front piece is the work of PCS, though we cannot recognize her usual PCS sigunature. I'd like to hear your views, friends.
http://grimoire.blog.ocn.ne.jp/doll/files/henryirving.jpg
and furthere images for references. The portrait of Irving is by Bastien Lepage.
http://grimoire.blog.ocn.ne.jp/doll/files/henryirving02.jpg
very small piece of paper attached on the endpaper.
http://grimoire.blog.ocn.ne.jp/doll/files/henryirving03.jpg
The book has a ex-libris saying "Eric Jones-Evans". Google work tells me he is a British playwright. Interesting.
Roppo- thanks so much for taking the time to post these images...
One thing I thought was interesting was the last image in the Green Sheaf issue #11, ("A Lyke-Wake Dirge") immediately made me think of a painting by Edvard Munch. As it turns out, he painted "Death in a Sickroom", (which was about the death of his sister) in 1895- nine years before Pamela did this illustration.
I wonder if she ever saw Munch's work? The feeling is very similar, (although, I suppose death at home was quite an unfortunate but common occurrence back then. :( )
http://www.usc.edu/programs/cst/deadfiles/lacasis/ansc100/library/images/662bg.jpg
elnor
The crowned one
26-01-2008, 23:11
Wonderful, rare artwork!
Roppo: Thank you for posting these. You did a great job and a great service.
Did you notice that Horton's picture in GS#2 looks almost exactly like the Hanged Man's head? And the text you quoted from William Blake could be taken as a text on the Hanged Man.
Mary
Mary, that was my very first thought.
I believe the front piece is the work of PCS, though we cannot recognize her usual PCS sigunature. I'd like to hear your views, friends.
http://grimoire.blog.ocn.ne.jp/doll/files/henryirving.jpg
Certainly seems like the work of PCS. Thanks for sharing this.
Mary
I'm now constructing "The Occult Art Gallery" in my website and featuring PCS's works. Most of the PCS's Green Sheaf pictures are there.
Explanations are written in Japanese as usual (partly in English), but the pictures are universal (of course!) so anyone can enjoy them; just click the thumbnails.
http://www7.ocn.ne.jp/~elfindog/ocartglry.htm
I'm fully aware that most of the PCS pictures are already seen at Holly Volly's excellent website. Well, hers are hers and mine are mine. Anyway I have to build up my own gallery for the Japanese readers. I'll add many more pictures soon, including supposedly an original self-portrait of PCS (watercolor!).
Presently an old tatterd little book tilted "Stories for Corinne" is the eye-catcher. The editor/author is Mrs Colman, the grandmother of PCS.
Friends, please enjoy.
I can hardly wait to see the rest of your pictures. Please let us know as soon as you have the portrait of Pixie up. I'm dying to see it.
Mary
Cerulean
04-04-2008, 11:18
Shakespeare's Heroines poster by PCS:
http://www.udel.edu/PR/UDaily/2005/feb/oscar030105.html
Women of Stiglitz Circle Exhibit:
http://www.high.org/experience/exhibitions/exhib_content.aspx?id1=2613
I plan to order the book! If anyone made it to the exhibit, please let us know!
Cerulean
Cerulean
04-04-2008, 11:45
If you are strapped for cash, you can buy it for $17 at Amazon.com instead of $34 from the Georgia Museum...
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw/105-4616790-2947600?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Women+of+Stieglitz+Circle&x=0&y=0
It might be the next good book to curl up with next to my Frank Jensen book on PCS's tarot and Robert Place's Tarot Symbolism...I like seeing her place in art history appreciated even before the 'anniversary' of the 1909-1910 tarot images.
I look forward to this as a good 'art history read' as well as looking at Roppo's site...
Cerulean
Hm. Here's what the "inside flap" of the book says, according to Amazon.
I might save my money. :D It's that line about the "Freudian-inflected trope of the 'woman-child'" in regards to O'Keefe, on whom this book seems focused....
"Kathleen Pyne meticulously reconstructs the artistic lives of the important-but relatively overlooked-women artists of Alfred Stieglitz's circle. She demonstrates that Stieglitz's interactions with these artists shaped his subsequent promotion of Georgia O'Keeffe's artistic identity through the Freudian-inflected trope of the 'woman-child.' Thus, however well known O'Keeffe may be to contemporary audiences, Pyne's analysis effectively resituates her iconic presence within a broader, gendered field of American modernism."--Marcia Brennan, Associate Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art History, Rice University
"This book is a fascinating study of Stieglitz's 'prototypes' for Georgia O'Keeffe--the modern women artists he promoted and encouraged before he decided on O'Keeffe as the icon who surpassed them all. Modernism and the Feminine Voice will not only open up O'Keeffe studies but also reinvigorate interest in the more quixotic artists such as Anne Brigman left in O'Keeffe's wake."--Alexander Nemerov, Professor in the Department of the History of Art, Yale University
"Pyne widens the field of vision around the art of Georgia O'Keeffe in order to sharpen our focus on it. Our understanding of the sexual politics of modernism is deeply enriched and nuanced by this important book."--Michael Leja, Professor in the Department of History of Art, University of Pennsylvania
"This engaging and original study of American modernism finally places Georgia O'Keeffe in the context of her female peers. Pyne draws upon rich primary sources and lively contemporary influences that include Henri Bergson, Havelock Ellis, and Sigmund Freud. She makes explicit what Alfred Stieglitz meant by 'female creativity,' and how he went about finding it, giving due emphasis to the role played by sexuality in the emergence of the modernist female artist."--Gail Levin, author of Becoming Judy Chicago: A Biography of the Artist
re-pete-a
04-04-2008, 22:04
Roppo your a gem!!You have unwittingly answered a plagueing question."The Hills are alive" Notice the hills in the RWS,especially the lovers,plus, most of the houses or hamlets are on hills,castles etc...........by making public your joy you have expanded awareness,,,we now quote PCS(?)......'HILLS OF HEARTS DESIRE',,,,In the RWS, Purple for the lovers card,PURPLE usually represents Knowledge,we're rambling here.....Thanks HEAPS!!!
________
Alaska Dispensary (http://alaska.dispensaries.org/)
Cerulean
05-04-2008, 04:06
...so if others are interested in the book, but want to wait for a review, I'll try to report back. I think I understood from reading other authors that P.C.S.--as any artist would-- was not happy for being judged at as merely 'a natural' channel for other people's visions...and she was proud of her recognition as a British Artist.
Debra says:
"It's that line about the "Freudian-inflected trope of the 'woman-child'" in regards to O'Keefe, on whom this book seems focused...."
Thanks for pointing that out and when I do receive the book, I'll check out the focus and find out what they say on Ms. PCS! As someone has pointed out, PCS might be just a small mention and not given as much air-play as the wonderful site that Roppo has established with the information and art.
I want to thank Roppo for following up the Yone Noguchi poetic links and providing food for thoughts...
Cerulean
Let me join the chorus in thanking you for your efforts, in particular for bringing this hundred-year-old small-press work to light! This is wonderful, particularly the insight you've provided into the life and work of Pixie Smith.
One can easily see her images as potential tarot imagery... It's almost as though these were 'lost cards' or 'outtakes'.
❤❤❤❤❤
A Broad Sheet No. 10 has a very interesting image...
we can easily see an early view of The 4 of Swords.
Here shown with image flipped to match the card~;)
...which makes me wonder something: just how many of the cards, and which ones, had been made using earlier imagery she had already done before the Waite commission happened? I'm curious, from an artist's point of view, to know what amount of the Smith/Waite deck was 'recycled', so to speak.
I've just updated my website and added a new section "Pamela Colman Smith 2". I believe some of the pictures shown there are very rare, perhaps the first time to see for many of us. I was yelling and dancing joyously like a mad man when I discovered PCS's SadaYacco (you're right, I'm mad!) As to the supposedly original self portrait of PCS, well, I want to hear your opinion.
http://www7.ocn.ne.jp/~elfindog/pcsworks2.htm
I've been updating my website every Thursday morning since 1999, but this time I simply can't wait to show the world what I found.
HoneyBea
07-04-2008, 20:02
Thank you for posting these images, I am so taken by what I see :)
the supposedly original self portrait of PCS
http://www7.ocn.ne.jp/~elfindog/pcsworks2.htm
Roppo - I have a clearly different portrait in my copy of Widdicombe Fair #304. Mine doesn't look much like PCS - though yours looks a little more like her.
The second attachent is a drawing of her by Marius de Zayas from the O'Keeffe and the Women of the Stieglitz Circle exhibition catalog Modernism and the Feminine Voice. It clearly shows her in the midst of her story telling.
Mary
Cerulean
09-04-2008, 12:03
...and a Japanese-inspired hoppi coat circa 1905 from Parisian 'all the rage'. ( I checked my larger British edition of "Madame Sadayakko" which has color pictures not in the U.S. version...
From what Kenji posted, I like comparing what I have to PCS' delicate rendering of Madame Sadayakko---there's much grace and fluidity in the scene.
The charming and lovely 'self-portrait' of PCS--what a lovely find, Roppo!
And thanks Ms. Teheuti for posting the book pictures from the Stieglitz Circle--my book is on order and I look forward to seeing some new images.
Altogether, a glorious Spring zing to Pixie-lovers.
Cerulean
hello friends, I'm very glad you enjoyed the pictures of PCS.
Today I added to my PCS corner2 the WWI posters of hers I found in the public domain digital archive of the Congress Library. The one "Polish--" is especially interesting because it's very like a Tarot scene - "Judgement". Take a look!
http://www7.ocn.ne.jp/~elfindog/czenstochowa.jpg
Beautiful, isn't it? Pixie's usual PCS signature can be seen at the lower left corner, very small.
Roppo - feel free to include the portrait from my copy of Widdicombe Fair on your website - perhaps you could eventually get a little portrait gallery from different copies of the material.
Mary
Cerulean
11-04-2008, 06:10
...which is the art catalogue and art exhibit of "O-Keeffe and the Women of the Stieglitz Circle."
Just a quick view from pages 47-57 of the text...I know there's more mentions of PCS in the book, but this is a quick bite:
The following might be only my mad cold musings...I need to be doing a careful reading of the text will help me write more clearly of a balanced view of Ms. Pamela Colman Smith. PCS as someone who understandably 'fit the niche' of an artist persona being developed by not only Stieglitz, but others of the time. It is true that people of the 1900s might breathe and utter wonderful oohs and ahhs of what seemed new and beautiful to them...and it seems a kind of 'mystical' touch was given play to those enchanted with her work.
I remember first hearing (from good teachers such as Teheuti) of that natural talent of drawing the visual from music (I've seen Debussey mentioned more than once in association with PCS' work). More people do such integrated things in the modern day, so the rare and beautiful way she integrated all those things might be less recognized now... (Film/television shows seem to form a storyline and show scenes that showcase pop musician's work all the time now...maybe not the same thing?)
I'm paraphrasing some of the text and partly timelines others have developed; She was after all 15-19 years old (born 1878, graduated Pratt in 1897) when attending the Pratt art school in Brooklyn...and the art catalog points out her publishing company was considered 'successful' in the late 1890s. Her art was sold by a New York dealer from 1897-1902...She is said to have returned to England in 1899 after a rejected publishing project and the Lyceum Theatre was her new focus...Throughout 1906-1909, her work included Golden Dawn interactions, stage settings for the group with William Butler Yeats involvement and the tarot card designs...
The book says her tarot card design involvement could have been as early as 1906, so when she was about 26 years old to 29 years of age...a young artist, still...
Forgive the cold medicine ravings. Suffice to say for me, a great book that is reawakening some ideas...Thanks for posting these gorgeous pictures and inspirational discussions, everyone! Hope my notes help a bit...perhaps to raise curiousity or answer the question"...say, would this book be worth it?"
Cheerfully signing off,
Cerulean
Roppo - feel free to include the portrait from my copy of Widdicombe Fair on your website - perhaps you could eventually get a little portrait gallery from different copies of the material.
Mary
Thank you very much for the proposal, Tahueti. Today I updated my website and included your Widdicombe Fair portrait in the PCS section. Other materials for the updating are a number of pictures from "The Book of Friendly Giants" (really cool!), and some Mrs Colman's childrens' book.
http://www7.ocn.ne.jp/~elfindog/pcsworks2.htm
BTW, I want to know if anyone did a serious PCS research on the Debussy side.
Cerulean
17-04-2008, 10:21
I saw that Teheuti also posted this image and "The Craftsman" links from her blog. Below is a bit more information on the actual letter...followed by a separate reference with the Broadsheet images from Jack Butler Yeats and Pamela Colman Smith...I don't know if I've seen the Broadsheet digital archive referenced at aeclectic.net before. My apologies if my attribution is not correct--please let me know and I'll credit the finders appropriately!
I've also posted this before or a link...but you might want to add this to your "PCS to Stieglitz" section, since it's the photocopy of PCS' note of 80 cards to A. Stieglitz...the image is from the online Cary-Beinicke Library database, among other digital images you can search...I'll send the link to you pm and you can pick and choose the images that work for your updates...
Here's the full text attribution from the Cary image database:
Image ID:39002037505584
Image File Name: 3750558
CALLNUMBER : YCAL MSS 85
BOX : 45
FOLDER: 1076
PAGE NUMBER: 1
SOURCE AUTHOR:
Smith, Pamela Colman
SOURCE TITLE:
ALS to Alfred Stieglitz
REPRO TYPE:
5x7 bw neg
CREDIT LINE:
Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
SOURCE DATE:
19 Nov 1909
BEINECKE FILE HEADING
Smith, Pamela Colman
The dating and the historical link may be of some interest.
I know I've posted the Bryn Maw links before at aeclectic.net...and sent it to you via p.m.--that is, if you haven't seen it already!
Below is the Broadsheet images and poetry in context--I liked this online collection for the ability to magnify the image and it's crisp reproduction for personal image viewing.
Best wishes,
Cerulean
Cerulean
17-04-2008, 10:44
Here's a new collection with better images and information....
http://images.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/i/image/image-idx?c=yeats&page=index
The mysterious "A.E." dates back to 1902-03 with Jack Butler Yeats and PCS...I think someone identified AE before as George Russell...I think I have a copy of "The Celtic Twilight" in paperback...but I'll be checking...
Best wishes,
Cerulean
I have been making a hunting journey deep into the forest of early 20th century magazine publications, hoping to find a footstep or two of Pamela Colman Smith. Today I found a rather interesting photo.
http://grimoire.blog.ocn.ne.jp/doll/files/actorless.jpg
It's in the 1908 May issue of "Current Literature" p.546. The article says
"On the reconstructed stage Mr Craig would endeavor to give the effect of vast spaces, and for actors he would provide not even puppets, but 'gaunt profile figures fashioned from boards.' These figures would have no gestures, but could be moved from point to point, while for perspective purposes smaller boards cut in oulined semblance of human creatures could be used to represent persons at varying distances -- something the present stage does not achieve with that fidelity to perspecive that alone satisfies the artistic sense."
Mr Craig is of course Edward Gordon Craig, a son of Ellen Terry, and a good friend of PCS. I'm under the impression that Gordon Craig was doing a large scale "Toy Theatre" which PCS was very fond of, and the "profile figures" in the photo reminds me of the figures in the PCS's musical paintings.
Perhaps these were designed by her?
Friends, I want to hear your opinion.
Cerulean
30-04-2008, 04:43
If I find anything of his style, I will post. It does look like the 'house style' of A.E. as well as P.C. Smith.
Just fyi, a listing of a Gordon Craig illustration..
http://www.ilab.org/db/book2316_202385.html
Productions by him...a set sketch as well (no puppets):
http://www.artsalive.ca/en/thf/histoire/metteursenscene.html
More background info on Gordon Craig:
http://www.themargins.net/bib/D/d17.html
The photograph scan looks quite well done, I'll check the photographer's name as well...
Cerulean
Lavandula
30-04-2008, 22:18
What a find! Thanks for sharing :)
"bi-dimensional drama"...? Maybe he means movies and tv? :)
Today I received an old magazine, the January issue of "The Critic" 1899 which shows the following photo of PCS.
http://grimoire.blog.ocn.ne.jp/doll/files/critic01.jpg
This photo is well-known and can be seen everywhere, but the accompanying article is not. Here goes --
" At the present moment the work of Miss Pamela Colman Smith is known only to the few, but I predict that as soon as Mr Russell has her hand colored prints on the market her name will be a household word among amateurs of art. She is, I believe, quite a young woman, and her home is in Jamaica, B.W.I., but she has studied at the Pratt Institute, where her original talent was soon recognized. Miss Smith has the cleverness of Aubrey Beardsley without his coarseness. Refinement is the key-note of her work. It is a pity that the two examples here given are not in color, as are the originals. They lose much by the change to black and white. Miss Smith, who is clever with her pen as well as with the brush, has written several plays to be performed by pasteboard figures on a stage across which they are moved by means of grooves and strings. The stage, scenery, and the properties are all the work of Miss Smith's deft fingers. A number of the "Annancy," or folk tales of Jamaica, have been written down and illustrated by Miss Smith, and will be published by Mr. Russell. The illustrations of these strories bear little resembrance to the examples of Miss Smith's work here given. the are bolder, and while they show no more imagination, they are more striking because of their weirdness."
the two examples :
http://grimoire.blog.ocn.ne.jp/doll/files/critic02.jpg
By the way I'm now into the making of "W.T.Horton Esoteric Tarot".
For your pleasure --
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=98392
Some might call this shameless advertisement. I agree (lol).
Cerulean
10-05-2008, 14:05
...somehow black and white with these designs seem to be such a natural fit.
Thank you for your amazing generosity and creative sharing.
Cerulean
I'm now reading "Edy Craig"(Frederick Muller, London, 1949). an anthology of the recollections of Edith Craig by her friends, published after her death. It's strange PCS didn't contribute anything. Irene Cooper Willis wrote about PCS as follows:
"... my impressions are merged - of scenes af the 'Gourmets' restaurant, where they lunched and dined regularly and gave audience to a galaxy of friends ( Laurence Alma Tadema, whome they called 'the Queen of Poland', was one of them and another was dear, funny, Chinese-looking little artist and paitner of 'musical pictures', Pixie Colman Smith)..." p.108
By the way there's a lovely photo of Ellen Terry and young girl Edith in the book.
http://grimoire.blog.ocn.ne.jp/doll/files/edy11.jpg
It convinced me the Widdicomb Fair #304 drawing Taheuti shows us is a portrait of young Edith Craig.
I think I'm a good hunter. This time, a true self portrait of PCS!
http://grimoire.blog.ocn.ne.jp/doll/files/critic06.jpg
It was hidden in the 1900 July issue of "The Critic" with two other works of hers which shall be shown next week at my website.
I'm now waiting for the arrival of some old magazines and ephemerals, PCS-related. It's a joyful world!
***
"The Strand Magazine" 1908 June issue arrived today and gave me another Pixie pictures and infos!
http://grimoire.blog.ocn.ne.jp/doll/files/strand02.jpg
The show must go on...
Does anyone else seem to have problems getting to Roppo's
http://grimoire.blog.ocn.ne.jp/ pages? I keep getting "timed-out" or "server not responding" no matter which browser I use with my high-speed dsl.
Any suggestions?
Mary
Hello, Teheuti,
No, I see no problem with my "grimoir.blog", by IE or FireFox. The blog is being provided by OCN the Japan's leading ISP and there has been no report of traffic jam for them these 24 hours. Sorry I can do nothing from my side.
Anyway the blog is simply my storehouse for the heavy files and images. Now you can see all the "Critic" and "Strand" images at my official website.
for "Critic" images,
http://www7.ocn.ne.jp/~elfindog/pcsworks.htm
"Strand". Scroll down a little.
http://www7.ocn.ne.jp/~elfindog/pcsworks2.htm
You can read original accompanying texts too.
This time I think I found PCS works not mentioned even in Dr Melinda Boyd Parsons's "To All Believers", Mr Kaplan's "Encyclopedia III" nor Mr Frank Jensen's "Story of WS Tarot".
And the works are big, hand-colored and really cool Shakespearean.
PCS founded in 1904 a "Green Sheaf School of Hand Colouring". It was a sort of bussiness project which undertook "small editions of books, programmes, cards, etc for private theatricals and dances..." I believe the orders she could get were not many. The folio-sized "The British Empire Shakespeare Society" was among the few. Today I received it and found four exellent large hand-coloured pictures in it. I danced, yelled, running around my house like a mad man as usual.
The president of the Society was Sir Henry Irving, and many PCS's friends were the members, Cecil French, Hartcourt Williams, etc. So they ordered Green Sheaf School to produce coloured illustrations for their annual report which was to be sent to St Louis Exhibition. PCS did her best.
http://grimoire.blog.ocn.ne.jp/doll/files/BESS01.jpg
http://grimoire.blog.ocn.ne.jp/doll/files/BESS02.jpg
http://grimoire.blog.ocn.ne.jp/doll/files/BESS03.jpg
http://grimoire.blog.ocn.ne.jp/doll/files/BESS04.jpg
They are to be shown officially at my website next Thursday morning (JST).
Cerulean
23-06-2008, 14:48
These are gloriously pretty and detailed...I've never seen such works of art better reproduced.
If you ever do an alternative selection of PCS's scenes for a tarot, I'd love to see it as well.
Cerulean
Wow.. thank you so much, Roppo - again..!!
These finds are true gems! Thank you, Roppo!
Now we know a little of what PCS would have wanted to see done with the tarot images. Remember her lament about the poor colors the lithographers gave the deck? These colors would have been more to her liking.
It's so wonderful to peek inside her portfolio! These are other drawings, for other purposes, but the work is the same. The same lines, the same faces, even some of the same details and motifs to be found in the deck that's as familiar to most of us as our own hands.
There's already enough here to put together a book or folio of Pixie work, as an illumination to those who want more beyond the deck.
+++++
At last I got it! Seumas Macmanus's "In Chimney Corners" (1899) illustrated by PCS. Beautiful color plates here and there. Some examples,
http://grimoire.blog.ocn.ne.jp/doll/files/chimney02.jpg
http://grimoire.blog.ocn.ne.jp/doll/files/chimney04.jpg
http://grimoire.blog.ocn.ne.jp/doll/files/chimney05.jpg
http://grimoire.blog.ocn.ne.jp/doll/files/chimney06.jpg
I danced, yelled and ran around my house. Now a sort of ritual!
What a wonderful find, Roppo!
No wonder you are dancing! :D
great stuff! wonderful finds!
the artwork is like a mixture of Beardsley line and early Matisse color, through an Art Nouveau lens. she really was the perfect choice for a set of tarot deck images!
Today I received Miss Alma Tadema's "Four Plays" published by the Green Sheaf. The frontpiece I suppose is the work of PCS, though withou that monogram. Books published by the Green Sheaf are soft paperbacks and very fragile so that they were likely to be rebound into hardcover. My copy is in the original state so that we can see the valuable back advertisement. And there's an inscripition by the author.
http://grimoire.blog.ocn.ne.jp/doll/files/fourplays01.jpg
http://grimoire.blog.ocn.ne.jp/doll/files/fourplays02.jpg
http://grimoire.blog.ocn.ne.jp/doll/files/fourplays03.jpg
the back ad says --
At the "Green Sheaf" may be found,
Many prints both square and round.
Post card, two pence, three pence, more --
Just come in and see our store.
So there were post cards by PCS. My hunting never ends!
Wonderful additions to your collection.
Just a point of clarification - it's Mr. Laurence (Lawrence) Alma-Tadema, the well-known Victorian artist.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Alma-Tadema
Your copy was dedicated to the famous novelist and anti-suffragette campaigner, Mary Augusta (Mrs. Humphrey) Ward.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Augusta_Ward
Congratulations on a great find.
Mary
Hi Teheuti,
Laurence Alma Tadema(1864-1940) is a daughter of Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema the painter (notice u and w!). It's very confusing!
Miss Alma Tadema wrote poems, plays, novels, etc. One of her translation works was Maeterlinck's play "Pelleas e Melisanda", later turned into opera with the music of Debussy. Presumably it was Miss Alma Tadema who introduced PCS to Debussy. In WWI Miss Alma Tadema became the honorary chairman of Polish Victims' Relief Fund. PCS drew a poster for the organizasion. Very powerful lady, without doubt!
Many point out that the settings of RWS minors are very theatrical, stage-like. But to which play? I suppose we might find a part of answer by checking these "not so well-known" plays written by Pixie's friends.
Hi Teheuti,
Laurence Alma Tadema(1864-1940) is a daughter of Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema the painter (notice u and w!). It's very confusing!
Thanks for clarifying that. It is confusing as the father's name seems to be spelled both ways, too.
Mary
Mr Kaplan told us that Pamela Colman Smith went into obscurity after WWI.
"After 1920, none of her artistic works seem to have reached the public" wrote Mr Jensen in his brilliant WS study.
A book I received today clearly shows that was not the case. My latest, and perhaps the biggest finding ever. I yelled, danced, ran around my house as usual. And now I'm planning a lantern procession.
Lyttelton, Edith, "The Sinclair Family", Heath Cranton, London, 1926.
There are twelve illustrations by PCS in the book!!!!! and all of them with a date "1925". Some examples --
http://grimoire.blog.ocn.ne.jp/doll/files/sinclair01.jpg
http://grimoire.blog.ocn.ne.jp/doll/files/sinclair04.jpg
http://grimoire.blog.ocn.ne.jp/doll/files/sinclair06.jpg
http://grimoire.blog.ocn.ne.jp/doll/files/sinclair12.jpg
I believe the link between PCS and Edith Lyttelton (1865-1948) was established during WWI when both women were involved in the War Refugee issue. Lytteton was a great lover of theatre (wrote seven plays herself) and illustrations of children's literature; it's no wonder she became interested in PCS. And she had a supernatural tendency and once a President of the council of the Society for Psychical Reseach (1933-34). One of the really powerful women of her days.
Now I believe this was not the last book PCS did illustrarion. Perhap one or two are still sleeping somewhere in the world, unnoticed. My hunting continues.
The crowned one
16-09-2008, 15:02
roppo, amazing what you come up with.
Do you suppose these might have been drawn a bit earlier then the publication date?
Oh wonderful. I especially like Peter and Ann in Stockholm.
roppo, amazing what you come up with.
Do you suppose these might have been drawn a bit earlier then the publication date?
Yes, I suppose so. PCS wrote "1925" beside her monogram and I have no reason to doubt it.
Now this is really a breakthrough. I believe by searching Lyttelton we'll be able to discover some unknown facts about Pixie.
Roppo -- you've turned into a historian. Already there's enough here for a small monograph. I wonder if there wouldn't be a way to partner with US Games for a short, but well-illustrated book on the extended ouevre of Pamela Colman Smith? I would imagine there's enough self-interest on their part, and certainly enough enthusiasm and knowledge on your part, to create a product of absorbing interest to tarot fans everywhere?
Thank you for the words Rota. But my little collection is a kitten compared to the U.S. Game System's (i.e., Mr Kaplan's) Pixie collection which is like a roaring tiger. They can compile a respectable Pixie book by their own if they want to. What I'm doing is just an interlude. The real show will start when Dr Parsons's Pixie biography appears.
I know two more places where I think I can find some less known Pixie works. Hunting continues.
"At the "Green Sheaf" may be found,
Many prints both square and round.
Post card, two pence, three pence, more --
Just come in and see our store"
So there were post cards by PCS. My hunting never ends!
And today I received three "Green Sheaf postcards" from an antique postcard speciallist shop! They're in quite good condition as you see -
http://grimoire.blog.ocn.ne.jp/doll/files/gfpostcard01.jpg
I believe there are many other designs, especially the heroines of Shakespeare, Portia, Beatrice, etc. I'm after them :D
Oh I love that Dante.
He wrote a few good books, too. ;)
I fogot these images.
http://grimoire.blog.ocn.ne.jp/doll/files/gfpostcard02.jpg
http://grimoire.blog.ocn.ne.jp/doll/files/gfpostcard03.jpg
http://grimoire.blog.ocn.ne.jp/doll/files/gfpostcard04.jpg
This week I could dig up some info about Pixie.
http://grimoire.blog.ocn.ne.jp/doll/files/craftpcs.jpg
The above famous photo of 1912 "Craftsman" -- it first appeared in the 1904 October issue of "The Lamp" magazine. So it's Pixie at the age of 25 or 26 in the costume as the Annancy story teller.
In a week or two I think I can show a colour work of PCS.
It's from "The Venture" 1905.
http://grimoire.blog.ocn.ne.jp/doll/files/autumnleaves.jpg
rather sentimental, isn't it?
I'm still searching unknown Pixie drawings. Wish me good luck.
Sentimental, yes, and lovely. Thanks for showing us--good luck with your continued quest!
Thanks roppo, and seems very much in her voice, unconstrained by the need to express something particularly like the RWS deck.
a great photo-find, Roppo! It's certainly no wonder why she acquired the nickname Pixie!
_________
Now I find a trace of good game in the dark forest of "Ex-Libris" as you see--
...Miss Yeats herself occasionally turns to the fashioning with her in this, and other branches of pictorial work, being her sister-in-law Mrs Jack Yeats, Miss Eileen Greig, Miss Maunsel, and Miss Pamela Coleman-Smith. Of this quartet the first evinces a notably rare gift for composition, although in actual draughtsmanship she is hardly equal of Miss Maunsel, whose lines are something finely graceful. But Miss Coleman-Smith is more original than either of these two, and at least one of her ex-libris drawings will some day, no doubt, be widely famous among collectors. It depicts an actress, stepping from the wings on to the stage, part of the auditorium being also shown; and the artist has really captured a certain quota of just what Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec were prone to miss in their pictures of this sort: that very sublte beauty and glamour which, in the theatre, lie in the contradistinction between the mass of shadowy darkness on the one hand, and the tiny glimpose of bright fairyland on the other... -- W.G. Blaikie-Murdoch in "The Cuala Press and Its Bookplates"( The Bookplate Booklet, 1919 May issue. p.15)
Of course I'm now doing a thorough research for Pixie-bookplates. But no luck yet.
By the way I picked up an intresting info during the hunting. From "The Bookplate Booklet" 1919 October issue -
"Mr A.E.Gallain, the collector and author of the monumental Iconography of Beardsley, published in 1902, Aubrey Beardsley as a Designer of Bookplates, a small but charming little booklet which re-published an article originally contributed to The Reader.
"A list of Bookplates by Aubrey Beardsley
"1894. 8. Mr Aleister Crowley -- Drawing of Madame Rejane in Empire dress, holding fan. Vide Later Work, page 57, adapted."
Which seems this.
http://grimoire.blog.ocn.ne.jp/doll/files/mmerejane.jpg
It's very interesting Crowley could order a bookplate from Beardlsley in 1894. He was barely 19 years old.
It's very interesting Crowley could order a bookplate from Beardlsley in 1894. He was barely 19 years old.
I vaguely recall something about his lover while at university, charles jerome pollit, being a friend of Beardsley... but my memory may be playing tricks on me.
I vaguely recall something about his lover while at university, charles jerome pollit, being a friend of Beardsley... but my memory may be playing tricks on me.
It wasn't:
http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~hou01559
That being said, Crowley did not enter Cambridge until 1895, and did not meet Pollit until his final year at the age of 23, perhaps a mutual interest or acquaintance with Beardsley is one of the things they found they had in common?
Sorry this is an off-topic but I have to report this :D
I could trace the source of the info of "The Bookplate Booklet". The Gallatin source they quote is this --
-- Gleeson White, in the essay I have already referred to, also speaks of book-plates designed by Beardsley forAleister Crowley and Gerald Kelly, adding that they have not been reproduced— probably using this word as meaning published. A short time ago I came into possession of these plates, and find they are reproductions of the portrait of Madame Rejane drawn by Beardsley in 1893, and reproduced on page 78 of "The Early Work of Aubrey Beardsley'' (1899) and of the drawing representing Flosshilde (1896). To these drawings have been added, with a pen, "Ex Libris Aleister Crowley'' and "Ex Libris Gerald Kelly".--
Gallatin, A.E. 'Aubrey Beardsley as a Designer of Book-Plates', (London : Elkin Matthews, 1902), p10-11.
And the Gleeson White source Gallatin quotes is this --
--Aubrey Beardsley designed a few book plates ; how many is not quite clear, for certain so-called ex libris, surreptitiously offered for sale, look like " fakes,'' that is, like drawings made into bookplates by the addition of a printed name, and not really designed for that purpose. One taken from a Morte d'Arthur border, and another from a Savoy prospectus, may be authorised, but they are not true ex libris. The first authentic example, one for Dr. J. Lumsden Proper! (whose famous collection of miniatures was lately dispersed), appeared in No. I of the "Yellow Book." A reproduction (if a plate for Miss Olive distance was given in a recent number of The Sketch. Those for Aleister Crowley and Gerald Kelly have not, so far, been reproduced. The so-called " Beardsley's own book-plate," reproduced in the " Fifty Drawings," completes the list. That the latter could ever be used, except in "top-shelf" volumes, is doubtful ; it is an unhappy instance of the perverted fancy which the greatest admirers of the genius of the wonderful black-and-white artist can but regret.--
White, Gleeson. 'Modern Book-Plates & Their Designers' Winter number of "The Studio", 1898-9, p.40
Now what we can safely assert is that the Crowley's "book-plate designed by Beardsley" was based on the portrait of Madame Rejane (1893) but that does not mean it was made in 1893 or 94. In 1898 Gleeson White recognized it as an authentic book-plate designed by Beardsley. We know Crowley met Leonard Smithers as early as in 1897 and might have ordered Beardsleyan book-plate at that time.
So much for Crowley and Beardsley. In two or three days I think I can show another very rare PCS works!
Again, this might be slightly off-topic, but I ran across another scholarly article about Pamela Colman Smith's art, and thought I'd share the info for any other completists out there. There seem to be a number of us Pixie junkies in these woods...
Here's the info: the book is titled The Spiritual Image in Modern Art, compiled by Kathleen J Regier, comprised of a number of articles by various scholars, on modern artists and their connection with spirituality. Our Ms. Smith is well-represented among such famous names as Klee, Pollock, Mondrian, Kandinsky, Van Gogh and Gauguin because of her unique multinationalism and connections with famous personalities.
The publisher is Quest. Her article is titled Mysticism in London: The "Golden Dawn," Synaesthesia, and "Psychic Automatism," in the Art of Pamela Colman Smith, by Melinda Boyd Parsons.
You'd probably unearth this book in a goodsized metaphysical store, or certainly online somewhere. It's well worth a read for its many anecdotes of her life and personality by people who knew her.
'As one fascinated writer remarked, "She feels quite detached from these drawings and is immensely interested in them, viewing them as an outsider who has never seen them before."'
Hi Rota. Yes, the article is quite informative and I read it through and through with immese joy. Dr Parsons is my compass, torchlight and idol!
Well then, a bit early Christmas present from me. PDF version of "Letters from the Beasts to Dina"(1905) by Edith M. Theobald with illustrations of Pamela Colman Smith.
http://grimoire.blog.ocn.ne.jp/doll/files/LettersfromtheBeaststoDina.pdf
This lovely piece for children is in "The Dream Garden, a Children's Annual "(London; John Baillie, 1905). I can't find any info about Edith Theobald.
And next week. A magazine containing an Ellen Terry drawing by Pixie is now flying somewhere over the Pacific Ocean, coming to my room. I'm happy.
I'm now constructing "The Occult Art Gallery" in my website and featuring PCS's works. Most of the PCS's Green Sheaf pictures are there.
Explanations are written in Japanese as usual (partly in English), but the pictures are universal (of course!) so anyone can enjoy them; just click the thumbnails.
http://www7.ocn.ne.jp/~elfindog/ocartglry.htm
I'm fully aware that most of the PCS pictures are already seen at Holly Volly's excellent website. Well, hers are hers and mine are mine. Anyway I have to build up my own gallery for the Japanese readers. I'll add many more pictures soon, including supposedly an original self-portrait of PCS (watercolor!).
Presently an old tatterd little book tilted "Stories for Corinne" is the eye-catcher. The editor/author is Mrs Colman, the grandmother of PCS.
Friends, please enjoy.
Breathtaking stuff. I really enjoyed Widdicombe Fair! Imagine a deck based on that style. Too fun!
"Lady's Realm" (vol. XIV, Hutchinson, London,1903) is the title of the magazine which contained the following drawing of Ellen Terry by PCS.
http://grimoire.blog.ocn.ne.jp/doll/files/hjord.jpg
It's from a scene of Ibsen's play "The Vikings" produced by Gordon Craig. These "one-time-appearances" in the old magazines are difficult to find, but I believe there woulld be still many other PCS works sleeping between forgotten pages.
And today I found an example of PCS bookplate. 2009 will start with it!
P.S. Hi Satori, I'm glad you enjoyed PCS works. Yes, Pixie's coloured works are really charming and interesting!
Here's a bookplate by PCS. A very simple design for the actor Frank Tyars showing his house at Grimshill, Kent, England.
http://grimoire.blog.ocn.ne.jp/doll/files/pcsbkplate01.jpg
But the real treat of this week is the following one. It's a byproduct of my PCS research/hunting and now one of my cherished treasures. Sorry it's not PCS work, but really worth looking, I believe.
Here goes, an illustration by M. Bergson-MacGregor! (generally known as Moina MacGregor Mathers).
http://grimoire.blog.ocn.ne.jp/doll/files/mbm04.jpg
I'll officially report the info about this image at my website Thursday morning (JST) :D
* I heard that some of you can't see the pictures from my grimoire-blog for some reason or another. For the benefits of AT members --
Just spent about an hour in this thread and its links. Then it occurred to me that it is PCS's birthday. Thanks for sharing all of this. Much appreciated!
Roppo -- you've turned into a historian. Already there's enough here for a small monograph. I wonder if there wouldn't be a way to partner with US Games for a short, but well-illustrated book on the extended ouevre of Pamela Colman Smith? I would imagine there's enough self-interest on their part, and certainly enough enthusiasm and knowledge on your part, to create a product of absorbing interest to tarot fans everywhere?
Now I can speak about it. US Games is going to publish their own Pixie RWS set!
http://www.usgamesinc.com/product.php?productid=1069
I'm really looking forward to it because there'll be some PCS works from my collection to be reproduced in the book.
PS Oh, Seafra, I'm very glad you enjoyed the links!
How exciting for you Roppo!
It looks like a nice set and certainly a reasonable price!
Great news! Great package and great price. Do let us know when it is available? I've been good and need a gift. :)
My quest for Pixie works is still going on steadily. Now, the illustrations from "Lair of the White Worm" by Bram Stoker (1911).
http://grimoire.blog.ocn.ne.jp/doll/files/worm01.jpg
http://grimoire.blog.ocn.ne.jp/doll/files/worm03.jpg
http://grimoire.blog.ocn.ne.jp/doll/files/worm05.jpg
And I'm waiting for the PCS Commemorative Set. Judging from the flyer they sent to me, there'll be many wonderful color works in the book. For me the colored "Mistress Page" and "Chim Chim" are gems!
flyer
http://grimoire.blog.ocn.ne.jp/doll/files/pcsflyer01.jpg
http://grimoire.blog.ocn.ne.jp/doll/files/pcsflyer02.jpg
In light of the recent discussions of Pamela Colman Smith and Stuart Kaplan, I thought I'd give this thread a bump. Great stuff here!
namesoftrees
19-05-2009, 18:41
thankyou for the bump! Thankyou for posting it.
Some of the Pamela artwork in the new set comes from Roppo! So we owe him more thanks!
Thank you very much Debra and friends.
Now with the publication of "The Art Work & Times of Pamela Colman Smith" in the Commemorative Set, I'm feeling my Pixie searching days are coming to an end. As I wrote before, Mr Kaplan's Pixie collection is really overwhelming and I simply admire it, with lot of sigh.
The book contains 127 pictures and in my estimation 40 works are not to be seen anywhere else, even on line ( I have 53 of them and am not sure this figure is great or not). I provided 3 works to the book from my colleciton, one of which is the "Much Ado About Nothing" printed on the keepsake box. I believe this is my personal victory:D (roppo stands up and bows). Cheers.
Jokes aside. Based on the biography in the Encyclopedia III and with newly added materials, the book offers the comprehensive view on the life and works of Pixie or Picky (or Pic : her close friends called her this way. "Pixie" was too formal for them!) I recommend the book wholeheartedly to anyone interested in Tarot, Art and Magic.
But I believe there'll be further materials to be added and it's my hope I'll be the finder of them. So my hunting continues. Wish me good luck, friends.
Best of luck, Roppo, and thank you for this awesome thread!
Today I received huge and heavy parcels which contained many issues and hard-bound versions of "The Occult Review" 1906-1948. Rough estimation tells me now I'm a owner of almost 80% of all the issues. Great. And of course there is a 1909 December issue featuring Pixie's Tarot drawing with very crisp lines. I scanned them by 300dpi and turned them into Jpeg without shrinking. So each item is rather heavy, about 800KB, but worth looking.
The fool
http://grimoire.blog.ocn.ne.jp/doll/files/RWS1909or00.jpg
The Magician
http://grimoire.blog.ocn.ne.jp/doll/files/RWS1909or01.jpg
Perhaps I'll be able to dig up interestig info about RWS from "OR".
Wow! What a treasure! I'm beginning to think that Roppo has a collection.... ;)
Interesting to see how skillfully Pixie depicts facial expressions on the hi-resolution cards--even the dog and the Magician's snake seem to be conveying emotion!
I have just been through this entire thread and am blown away. I had never seen any examples of PCS's artwork except the tarot cards. She is immensely talented. The coloring of the RWS cards, which she apparently didn't like, doesn't do her justice.
Reading this thread and looking at samples of her artwork has brought my 1971 RWS tarot alive again, despite the coloring. I can now see justification for getting an oversized RWS deck.
roppo, I want to thank you for broadening my horizons!
Your collection is truly marvelous; keep it up!
I cannot believe the beauty of the treasures you have uncovered. There really is no monetary value that can be placed on a collection such as this.
Oh, thank you for the kind word, missy! I'm still searching Pixie works and quite recently sniffed a hot track leading to some unknown forest. I'm not sure if I could come back with any luck, but worth trying, the deep forest is!:D
F.M. Tarot
25-09-2009, 18:11
I have just been through this entire thread and am blown away. I had never seen any examples of PCS's artwork except the tarot cards. She is immensely talented. The coloring of the RWS cards, which she apparently didn't like, doesn't do her justice.
Reading this thread and looking at samples of her artwork has brought my 1971 RWS tarot alive again, despite the coloring. I can now see justification for getting an oversized RWS deck.
roppo, I want to thank you for broadening my horizons!
Your collection is truly marvelous; keep it up!
I cannot believe the beauty of the treasures you have uncovered. There really is no monetary value that can be placed on a collection such as this.
If you really enjoyed all the art and images you must get the Pamela Colman Smith Commemorative Set that was released earlier this year! It comes in the most gorgeous large box and has all sorts of goodies. Postcards of her work, I really loved the biography of her that Kaplan wrote and the dozens of amazing and stunning works of her art presented in the book. The colors are so beautiful! But the best part is the deck, I always hated the RWS and the colors used. This is now the RWS for me, no other would ever do. It has the same coloring as her original artwork and has the antique bygone age storybook world feel to it. Honestly it is something hard to convey but something you only see for certain when you hold the deck and extras in your hands.
Best of all for mere peasants like us? Extremely affordable!! I could not believe all the beauty and pleasure I got for only $24 lol. Just thought I should point you in that direction since you really loved all her art and the original colors and style she worked with. I know I could never afford a Pamela A, B or C or any of her original artwork, so this was a dream come true for me.
Cerulean
03-10-2009, 09:22
in Chapter VI.of the Mitered Picture Frame
by a fellow arts and craftsman, William Noyes:
"...To be able to frame good pictures well, then, is the ideal to be kept in mind in learning to make picture-frames.
The suggestions here given are intended to apply only to the selection and the framing of comparatively small pictures, such as photographic and chromolithographic reproductions and Japanese color prints. In these days of cheap reproduction, good pictures of this class are inexpensive and readily secured. In the periodicals are to be found excellent reproductions of the work of some of the greatest living artists, such as Maxfield Parrish, Jules Guerin, John W. Alexander, Edwin Abbey, Frank Brangwyn, Gari Melcher, Pamela Colman Smith, and Jessie Wilcox Smith, to mention a few. Also Japanese color prints as well as photographic reproductions of universally recognized European and American masters may be procured at the best art stores.
For the novice, a sufficiently safe guide to the choice of good pictures, is to select from the works of these artists. However, a study of Prof. Arthur W. Dow's "Composition/' would go a long way toward enabling the student to select wisely his own pictures for framing.
To be able to frame good pictures well, then, is the ideal to be kept in mind in learning to make picture-frames...."
Title Design and Construction in Wood
Author William Noyes (Assistant Professor of Industrial Arts Teachers
College, Columbia University, New York City)
Publisher The Manual Arts Press
Year 1916
Copyright 1916, The Manual Arts Press
Cerulean's note: You can see that the art and matter-of-fact tone of the craftsman perspective...hope this period mention of P.C.S. adds to your store of nostalgia and hope of discoveries by this artist!
------------------------------------------
Arthur Wesley Dow was one of PCS teachers at the Pratt Institute.
Cerulean
03-10-2009, 09:41
Volume 3 No. 45 by Arthur F. Philips, May 1902
ONE hardly knows what to say about "A Broadsheet," the January issue of which is now before us. It is simply what its name describes, a coloured broadsheet and nothing more. It is certainly not intended for the nursery, for the words of the Blood Bond from "Grania", by George Moore and W.B. Yeats, are not for children, althought the illustration by Miss Pamela colman Smith is good in its way, although stiff. There is a spirited drawoing of "The Pooka! The Pooka!" by Jack B. Yeats. The Pooka seems to be a near connection of the Banshee, by the way. Altogether the "broadsheet" seems o be a very peculiar sheet with a mystical intention we cannot quite discover. perhas the Celtic renaissance has a hand in the buasiness. "A Broadsheet" is published by Elkins Matthews of Vigo Street, at thirteen pence a month, and there is something incongrouous in the announcement at the foot of the production that in America is twenty-five cents a month.
This notice is on page 10, wedged between an article about A NEW BLACK AND WHITE ARTIST Miss Katharine Kimball and before a gossipy note of the Gavarni Fete at Moulin Rouge.
From Google Books.
Thanks a lot for valuable info, Cerulean!
Now when it comes to books I think I'm a good hunter. But I'm ready to admit my helplessness in the world of fabric. So I here offer a clue and hope someone do the tracking.
"The Keene Valley tapestries made in the Adirondacks by the guides' wives in their homes, from special designs by Pamela Coleman Smith and under the able direction of Mrs. George Notman, are remarkable examples of weaving and are good from every standpoint. Made to order, from special designs and with the colors dyed to harmonize with any surroundings, they fill a need long felt by interior decorators." (Handicraft, Montague Press, 1912, p.390)
A TAPESTRY designed by Pixie? I want it for my room!!!
If you really enjoyed all the art and images you must get the Pamela Colman Smith Commemorative Set that was released earlier this year! It comes in the most gorgeous large box and has all sorts of goodies. Postcards of her work, I really loved the biography of her that Kaplan wrote and the dozens of amazing and stunning works of her art presented in the book. The colors are so beautiful! But the best part is the deck, I always hated the RWS and the colors used. This is now the RWS for me, no other would ever do. It has the same coloring as her original artwork and has the antique bygone age storybook world feel to it. Honestly it is something hard to convey but something you only see for certain when you hold the deck and extras in your hands.
Best of all for mere peasants like us? Extremely affordable!! I could not believe all the beauty and pleasure I got for only $24 lol. Just thought I should point you in that direction since you really loved all her art and the original colors and style she worked with. I know I could never afford a Pamela A, B or C or any of her original artwork, so this was a dream come true for me.
*Thank you* for this vote of confidence in this deck, F.M. Tarot! :love: I greatly appreciate it! I haven't checked the size of the deck, but if it is oversized and sticks to her true colors that she originally had, I would be thrilled to own it. If it is not oversized, am not as sure, but we'll see!
Also I only have limited room for my tarot collection so I must keep it fairly small. I admit I do best with "just" decks, as my book collection is overflowing, but then again, it does seem like if they produced a wonderful book of Pixie's artwork it would be hard to ignore!
The only thing I know to compare this to is my love of the artist John R. Neill, who illustrated many of the early books in L. Frank Baum's "Wizard of Oz" series of books. I have many of these antiquated or very early edition books, where you can see the images as they were originally printed, and they are indeed stunning. In fact, for me to get a reprint of John R. Neill's artwork wouldn't at all be the same to me as the original; it would be a let-down. Only because I have seen the originals; I hold them in my hands, or as close to an original as I can get, and I know they would not reprint them with the same faithful quality. It would be lost in the newer printing techniques and could not be captured. But yes, I love these old books with a fervor and would not easily part from them.
A book of Pixie's artwork does sound tempting, as does the beautiful deck that accompanies it!
:heart:
Now I bump up this old thead for a new drawing of PCS.
http://grimoire.blog.ocn.ne.jp/doll/files/gladys.jpg
It's a bookplate for the actress Gladys Unger (c.1884-1940) and from The Book-Lover's Magazine (1909). This bookplate was drawn when PCS was doing RWS job (for little cash!). I find it quite intersting PCS put a period (full stop) after the name Unger, as we find it in almost titles of RWS.
Hello friends, long time no see. A bump up time!
Today I received Saints Among Animals by Margaret Ward Cole. Its illustrations are by Alphaeus Cole, and hand-coloured by "Green Sheaf" ie Pamela Colman Smith.
This work seems to be first published by "Green Sheaf" in 1905, later by T. Sealey Clark, presumably due to the financial difficulty of the former. The Coles were PCS's life-long friends.
The work tells the lives of Christian Saints who had to do with animals. The last story deals with the lonely life of St Colman (yes, Colman!) who found solace in the company of a cock, a mouse and a fly. It is possible a mouse that often attaches to the end of PCS's signature derives from St Colman's mouse.
St. Francis of Assisi
http://grimoire.blog.ocn.ne.jp/doll/files/StAnimal02.jpg
Green Sheaf statement
http://grimoire.blog.ocn.ne.jp/doll/files/StAnimal03.jpg
St. Colman
http://grimoire.blog.ocn.ne.jp/doll/files/StAnimal04.jpg
Well then friends, I'm going back to the hunting. Wish me good luck.
PathWalker
08-09-2011, 22:40
I do indeed wish you luck Roppo, and thank you for this thread, I don't think I'd seen it before, some interesting things.
Best wishes
Pathwalker
Today I scanned the PCS drawings in The Green Sheaf again, and made them into far much bigger jpgs than before and updated the linkings in my PCS page.
http://www7.ocn.ne.jp/~elfindog/pcsworks.htm
Click the thumbnails in the The Green Sheaf corner and you can enjoy Pixie's subtle coloring in bigger scale. Besides, I added four new unpublished images (I had forgotten it, sorry).
I'm still hunting the Pixie works but recently no luck. But a good hunter is a persisting hunter, I believe. :D
* I know some members cannot see the images due to unknown reasons. I'm now constructing another storehouse blog and perhaps that might solve the problem. When finished I'll notice it. Thank you.