Pamela Colman Smith Commemorative Set

Must have for Waite/Rider Deck collectors/Users, I love Pamelas Colmans & A.E Waites Decks and this is the deck I've been looking for, The commemorative set is so well laid out and stylish I couldn't beleave how well its presented. Its comes with the commemorative Coleman & Waire Tarot deck which is the original print of the 1909 deck and the best version of the Tarot deck. Also it comes with a book about P.Colman and her work and A.E.Waite's book the Pictorial Key to the tarot. Its also comes with art postcard prints a tarot card layout sheet and art poster prints. My collection ended when I bought this... Well for now :) WARNING!! I didnt notice this at first but the Waites Pictorial Key to the Tarot that comes with this set has misprints in it, the book it self would have been the best print of the book ive seen if only for one they put the Tarot picture prints in the book which isnt the biggest deal since you have the actual deck but even still. Also another problem is the chapter Contents at the start of the book is missing a section 'a history to the tarot' which is in the book just not listed on the contents also in the 'trumps major and their innner simbolism' section later in the book there is a page completly missing, its the page with the description of the No21 'The World' major trump. I noticed this straight away as I read through 1st time but luckly I have another version of the book, so word of warning Great Tarot And P.coleman set but if your looking to read the 'The Pictorial key to the Tarot' buy another cheap print on the side.

I havent always loved the Rider Waite Smith deck. To be honest, once I realised there were other good decks out there, my copy fell to the very bottom of my reading pile. But when I saw the scans of this reprint.. I am blow away by the deck! The deck itself has a little tint to the deck, to make it look older, but also in sympathy for the first print of the deck. It looks and feels much better to me, that olde feeling of a deck that really is 100 years old and works with Colman Smith's artwork. As well as the deck you get 2 books. One is the pictorial key to the tarot by Arthur edward waite and the artwork and times of pamela colman smith by Stuart Kaplan. Kaplan's book has lots of scans from PCS's artwork and anything he can find connected to her and her life. Its a wonderful book and such an insight into the forgotten artist of this deck. There is also a little blue bag for the deck and sheet with 3 spreads on. All in all this set is wonderful and well worth the money. The presentation box, 2 books, deck, bag and spread poster is just amazing for the price of about £23 and this is owning part of Tarot history. I wholeheartedly recommend it.

I purchased this commemorative set for the sole purpose of reading the much anticipated book on Pamela's life and art as I already owned the Rider Waite deck itself, along with the accompanying cards' interpretations by A E Waite. Having finished this publication I was so eager to read, I will give a brief description only as an addendum to the other reviews: The Artwork and Times of Pamela Colman Smith is written by Stuart R Kaplan, who fortunately takes this endeavour to inform us with this insight into Pamela's life very seriously. The 101 page book contains lots of her non tarot illustrations, and varied examples of her poems or writings in a chronological order. The biographical information builds an interesting and often poignant picture of Smith's personal hopes, ideals, and public ventures, without being in any way obtrusive: a worthy retrospective of a creative life well lived. This set is certainly recommended for anyone newly interested in tarot, or those who enjoy art, biographies, or those willing to delve into the accomplishments and spirit of this fascinating lady.

This edition is a must have for fans of the Rider Waite Tarot. This is the edition I have been seeking out for years as it features the images as they were originally printed in 1909 unlike the current re-coloured and re-edited versions which I could never fully connect with. This deck is much clearer to the Original Waite and doesn't have the green skies in many of the images. However some people have complained about the grainy or newspaper like print of these cards. The reason for this is because the images have been most likely scanned from the original first edition deck from 1909 - as the original card drawings have never been discovered and allegedly got lost during the war. This also explains why there are so many bad printings of this deck as they have been simply recopied from copies and not the original.

Wow, what can I say... Yesterday I wrote a review about the Sola Busca Tarot which was described as a museum quality kit and I was disappointed, it only got 4 stars. Today I am writing a review about the Pamela Colman Smith Commemorative set and I am blown away by the quality, the presentation, the reproduction and the content of this kit. The colours and print mimic the originals very closely, the cards are printed on good quality stock, they are a good size which makes them easy to hold and the coffret is well designed to accommodate two books, a number of postcard size images and the pack of cards. Added to that there is a nice little bag to hold the cards together. Very pleased.

This is such a beautiful edition of the traditional Waite-Smith (otherwise known as the Rider-Waite) deck. The colouring is beautiful, and allows details in the cards to come through clearly. The deck feels great and is easy to shuffle. I would recommend the Commemorative Set for the biography of Pamela Colman Smith which comes with it

First of all, this is a really lovely set and the books, postcards etc are very interesting. It's nice for Pixie to finally get the recognition she deserves. Unfortunately, the first set I received had printing errors on four of the cards; severe creases and smudged ink which must have happened before the laminate was applied (see picture). Thankfully Amazon sent out a replacement the next day and the new set is fine. So just a word of warning to check everything over! Hopefully the first set was just a dud but sharing in case there could be a wider printing issue to watch out for.

Love it. Gorgeous! Highly recommend over the standard RWS decks. I do like the Radiant as well, but this deck is a joy to work with.

付録のパメラ・コールマン・スミスの画集が目当てで購入しました。 画集と見比べると、このカードはパメラ女史の画風を良く伝えていると思いました。ケースも含めた全体が、アールヌーボーの雰囲気を醸し出すデザインです。ど素人の身を省みず感想を言わせて頂けば、ウェイト版タロットの様々なバージョンがある中、この画家本来の画風及びそれに影響を与えていた製作当時の時代の風を再現した点にかけては、このセットが一番ではないでしょうか。 また、カード裏面のデザインもセンスが良く、嬉しかったです。 画集とあともう一冊の付録であるウェイトによる解説本も、いずれも予想以上にしっかりした書籍で、好企画だと思いました。 なお、このウェイトの解説本の日本語翻訳は、「タロット公式テキストブック」(魔女の家BOOKS)として出版されています。アレクサンドリア木星王先生による同書の解説によると、タロットは大好評でしたが、パメラ女史はその後ゴールデンドーンを脱退。そのため、ライダー社が第二弾の発売を望んでいたにも関わらず、女史が再びタロットを描く機会は無かったそうです。晩年は経済的に恵まれない生活だったとか。 実に残念なお話です。 せめて、このデッキでパメラ女史の遺業を少しでも偲べたらと思いました。

This is great boxed set. The package will keep the cards well-protected, the book is nice (typical stuff really), and the art-book is nice extra over-view of the artist's work, which most people aren't familiar with apart from the cards, though Smith was famous in her day already before she was commissioned to make them. The deck is typical "full-size tarot", not a mini deck and not oversized, of good stock, both shuffleable and unlikely to be damaged by suffling. The color treatment of the art is probably the best ever for the R-W-S cards. It is toned down considerably from the typical version (no more "radioactive banana" yellow, etc.), but is not so muted that it looks sombre or pretentiously faux-antique. It's just a really good color scheme for this traditional early-20th-century art inspired by Victorian Romanticism. I personally wish Smith had borrowed more from Art Nouveau, but it is what it is. She probably felt that was too trendy at the time. (And modern Nouveau-style decks are honestly a bit overwrought and look more pseudo-nouveau, like a lot of 1960s album art.) For those entirely unfamiliar with R-W-S or Rider-Waite decks: It's very traditional trump card imagery "keyed" with various Qabbalistic and Western Esoteric stuff (think Masons, Rosicrucians, Golden Dawn, etc.), and with the pip cards (10 of Wands, 3 of Cups, etc.) all illustrated with scenes that help jog one's memory of what the cards indicate (in traditional interpretations, anyway). The R-W-S illustrations have, over the last century or so, become themselves traditional, and most decks are at least loosely based on them (compare any card from this set and, say, Palladini's Aquarian Tarot, and you'll see a great deal of correspondence), and many are outright ripoffs (e.g. the Albano Waite deck, which my other had and which I grew up with). So, this kind of deck is much easier to work with than one with pip cards that don't show anything but 10 wands or 3 cups without human figures doing anything with them (e.g. Courtney Davis's The Celtic Tarot, which has gorgeous trumps but pips of that only an expert can interpret). Anyway, I was casting about for a new deck, and considered many options, but this item just "grabbed" me: the ultra-familiar R-W-S art but easier on the eyes, and packaged with great extras in a nice storage box, all for a good price, and without sacrificing any quality as to card stock, print clarity, card size, etc., and without any goofy newage reinvention of card meanings. This is just "pure" 20th-century tarot. Ultra-traditionalists who don't want any Qabbalah/Estotericism influences will want a pre-R-W-S set, I'm sure. But that's a specialized niche, and you'd be well advised to get Kaplan's three-volume Encyclopedia of Tarot and pore over it to decide what to look for (plus they're gorgeous and informative books). You might have to get something from Lo Scarabeo, who produce more pre-20th-century-traditional decks, including gypsy style, le Normand, etc. For typical American, British, Canadian, etc., tarot fans who are probably learning from 20th-century tarot books and familiar with at least the basics of the R-W-S art and its signification, you really can't go wrong with this particular package, unless you just desperately want something with goofy CGI art, or feel a burning need for a culturally-specific reinterpretation like wiccan, witch, Celtic, Asatru, etc., for which there are many options. Just be warned that most of them make major changes. Normally, I would knock off one star for the manufacturer putting copyright notices along the side of every single card, which is legally unnecessary and just an ugly imposition. But a) they (and several other printers) do this with all sets, and b) I don't want to discourage anyone getting this set. I can apply my "stop marring the cards" advocacy by down-voting a star in other review of other decks. THIS one is such a good deal I think anyone into tarot should get it while it is still even available. These things tend to go out-of-print quickly and the shoot upward in price as collectors' items.

These cards are soooooo beautiful. I love the fact that they aren't very shiny. (Some tarot cards are way too shiny) I really really like the muted colours. It gives an old time vintage feel. I really really like the backs of the cards, they are a nice light blue with a simple flower in the middle and Pamela's signature. The size is perfect and the thickness of the cards is also right on point. If you are looking for a rider Waite tarot deck and you're not sure which one to choose, I recommend looking at the comparison videos on YouTube. I unfortunately couldn't find the video that helped me but there are quite a few videos that talk about the differences in colour, texture, shine, and print quality. Not to mention decks printed in different decades. ( there are differences!) Because I like vintage looking things I quite like this deck. I feel like it's also a high quality deck in terms of colour, shape, texture like I mentioned. The extras that come in the set, the mesh bag, the little postcard sized renderings of her art, I wasn't too thrilled about. They weren't the best quality. But, they are just extras really. I bought the set for the deck itself. And it's my go to tarot deck now :)

Beau coffret, bien complet avec 2 livres 1 sur l'art de Pamela Colman Smith , et 1 sur le Tarot d'après Edward Waite, très intéressant ( pour les anglophones)quelques cartes postales très belles, ensuite le jeu , je regrette un peu la qualité du jeu.. qui est quand même le but de ce coffret .. les cartes ne sont pas bien cadrées .. petit détail mais on attendais quelque chose d'un peu mieux.. je préfère le jeu Original Waite, sinon pour le prix qui reste abordable c'est un très beau cadeau à offrir ou à s'offrir .

Este deck, segundo relata um dos livros que o acompanha, The Artwork and Times of Pamela Colman Smith, de Stuart R. Kaplan e Lynn Araujo, é a reprodução de um original de 1909 — conhecido entre colecionadores como Roses & Lilies — pertencente ao acervo do próprio Sr. Kaplan, que também assina a obra como coautor. Pessoalmente, dou muita importância aos artistas por trás daquilo que consumo, e esta edição celebra o trabalho extraordinário de Pamela Colman Smith, inclusive ao rebatizar o tradicional “Rider-Waite” como “Smith-Waite”, colocando o sobrenome da artista em primeiro plano. Sem dúvida, trata-se da versão de produção em massa mais fiel aos R&L. Para quem busca um baralho o mais próximo possível dos primeiros Rider-Waite de 1909, é uma escolha certeira. Sempre bom lembrar que a U.S. Games Systems é a detentora dos direitos editoriais e comerciais das restaurações mais tradicionais e amplamente difundidas do Tarot Rider-Waite desde a década de 70, a qualidade de tudo presente no set comemorativo é primorosa. Os materiais complementares são excelentes e, para quem tem facilidade com o inglês, constituem também um ótimo material de estudo. Infelizmente, um dos compartimentos da caixa veio fragilizado e solto, mas isso é o de menos, nenhum conteúdo interno estava avariado.