RWS Deck Creation

It's known that Pamela Colman Smith designed the RWS Deck under the direction of Arthur Edward Waite. My question is what inspired Waite's vision for the cards? Did other decks before Waite's have similar images as his? Or did he just fabricate visuals based on his own opinions on the cards?

Waite's dog never barked.

Eliphas Lévi (Alphonse Louis Constant 1810-1875) and thus Oswald Wirth
would've been the modern source of inspiration for Pamela Colman Smith,
but she 'drew' heavily upon the images from Le Tarot de Marseille as well.

Waite's primary source would have been S.L. MacGregor Mathers' documents. The Esoteric names for the cards along with their astrological attribution being the basis for most of the written descriptions and pictorial depictions. For specific written and pictorial departures, Alchemical, Masonic, and Rosicrucian inferences and inlfuences would have been utilized.

One of Waite's source was Paul Christian's tarot depiction in his Initiation fantasy. The other sources are of course Levi, Mathers, so on. There are drawings in some GD papers which in my eyes seemed to inspire Waite or Colman Smith considerably. I am under the impression that the Universal Mercury of Book M was a model of RWS Fool.

useful website

http://www.tarotpassages.com/old_moonstruck/oneill/index.htm

One source for (at least a couple of) RWS minors was likely the so-called Sola-Busca deck, which Lo Scarabeo has published as "Ancient Warriors Tarot". British Museum held photographic prints of this 15th century deck when Pamela Colman Smith painted her originals. If I remember right, Kaplan suggests that Waite probably adviced Smith to study those photographs.

Hi Ukkonen

Ukkonen said:

If I remember right, Kaplan suggests that Waite probably
adviced Smith to study those photographs.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the interesting reference ~ S.R.Kaplan, businessman.
But what a stretch to imagine ~ Pamela Colman Smith needing
"inspiration" for her artwork... she had a beautiful imagination.

Very true. It is interesting to speculate the motives of Waite -- did he suggest the Sola-Busca deck as a reference simply because Smith was going to do pictures on every card and the aforesaid deck has also pictures on minors...I'm not 100% sure but I believe that Mantegna prints were also available in those days as photographic prints - why not suggest them?
And, if certain cards in the RWS and the Sola-Busca deck wouldn't bear such a strong resemblance, I'm sure no-one would think that Smith had anything to do with the S-B cards.
The question remains.

PCS: The True Original

Of course it is also worth noting, if Pamela Colman Smith
paid homage to Tarot tradition by incorporating themes
from earlier decks look at the roaring abundance of decks
that directly copy every one of her ideas, often badly...