is there display of the original art by Pamela Colman Smith?

gorgeousbutterfly

I would love to see the original art from the tarot cards of rider waite, anybody know where i can find them if they exist?
 

Orlando

If Only It Could Be...

At least as of this writing, there is as much a chance of seeing PCS's original Tarot art as ABBA reuniting for a farewell tour! The mystery surrouding the location of her original Tarot artwork continues after almost a century following their creation. Maybe one day at least some of her magnificent work for the cards will resurface.
 

The 78th Fool

I'd be surprised if the original artwork ever surfaces at this stage. There are no colour originals - they were black and white line drawings and the colours were added at the printing stage (not by PCS, according to a letter written by the lady herself. A copy of it has been posted on the forum by Fulgour).

She was by and large and illustrator and print artist. The best we can hope to see are some of the original prints (See Holly Voley's PCS site) or museums like the V&A in London hold early copies of the RWS in their collections.

Chris. xx
 

Fulgour

Look at the cards and see...

The 78th Fool said:
...the colours were added at the printing stage...
For the lithography~ as PCS makes clear in her letter,
but the originals were as standard Goache, Pen & Ink,
which was her working medium. Rider didn't do colour,
not like this set of designs, and Waite was clueless. :)
 

Fulgour

Goache (colour!) Pen & Ink

The 78th Fool said:
There are no colour originals - they were black and white line drawings and the colours were added at the printing stage (not by PCS, according to a letter written by the lady herself. A copy of it has been posted on the forum by Fulgour).
As one of our new members (EarthBoy) so kindly pointed out,
In the Key to the Tarot 1910 (reissued as PKT in 1911) Waite
says....

"The Tarot cards which are issued with the small edition of the present work, that is to say, with the Key to the Tarot, have been drawn and coloured by Miss Pamela Colman Smith, and will, I think, be regarded as very striking and beautiful, in their design alike and execution." Page 67

*

Pam's letter... November 19, 1909...
 

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Debra

Ha! Amazing that she had such dreadful (erratic) handwriting!
 

TemperanceAngel

Debra said:
Ha! Amazing that she had such dreadful (erratic) handwriting!

Or maybe just showing that she had a creative temprament/personailty?

Does anyone here do handwriting analysis, that would be interesting if you did and post your findings of the letter posted by Fulgour!
 

Fulgour

I remember (back in my teens) when I first saw
the exotic signature "PCS" how I thought it was
by an artist who was mysterious and strange...

Nowadays, I often here people unfamiliar with it
refer to it as being a kind of odd Oriental design.

Click on: 3 Veiws of Pamela's "PCS"
 

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Shishkeberry

Fulgour said:
I remember (back in my teens) when I first saw
the exotic signature "PCS" how I thought it was
by an artist who was mysterious and strange...


I always felt the same way! It was one of the things that actually drew me to the RWS.
 

Briar Rose

Thank you so much for the letter by Pamela Coleman-Smith. I printed it out, and I am putting it in my Tarot Journal. It is to be cherished.

However, if it is really authentic, her handwriting for that time is extremely different, and very out of character for that time. And her use of words does not match that era either.

Where is this letter now? And is it authentic?