Smith-Waite Centennial Tarot Deck

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 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.

Specs

•  US Games
• Size Cards measure 2.75? x 4.75
• Language EN
• Artist Pamela Colman Smith

Artist

Pamela Coleman Smith was an artist, illustrator, and writer. Born in Pimlico, Middlesex (now London), Smith was the daughter of American merchant Charles Edward Smith and Corinne Colman. Smith’s life was often very transitory. Her father’s job with the West India Improvement Company stationed the family throughout Europe and North America’s eastern coast, and after her mother’s death when Smith was ten she was taken in by family friends who performed in the Lyceum traveling theatre.

In 1893, Smith moved to Brooklyn to be with her father. There, at age 15, she enrolled at the relatively new Pratt Institute and studied art under Arthur Wesley Dow. After her graduation four years later she returned to England, where she became an illustrator and theatrical designer.

Smith wrote and illustrated several books, and designed the Rider-Waite-Smith deck of Tarot cards for Arthur Edward Waite in 1909—designs still used today.

In 1909, Waite paid Smith a flat fee for illustrating his Tarot deck. He chose Pamela for the job because of her talent, their common membership in the Golden Dawn, and because he believed her clairvoyant abilities would help her perceive the higher mystical truths he was attempting to convey with his deck. She not only didn’t benefit financially from the deck, but the publisher’s name was put on the deck instead of hers. Recently, the tarot community has been correcting this injustice by referring to the deck as the Rider Waite Smith (RWS) or Waite Smith deck (WS).

She never married. After the end of the First World War, Smith received an inheritance that enabled her to move to Cornwall, an area popular with artists. She died in Bude, Cornwall on the 18th of September, 1951.