The Green Sheaf

F.M. Tarot

missy_ said:
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.
Click to expand...

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

Hello Roppo, here's a 1916 mention of Pamela Colman Smith

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

The Art record: a monthly illustrated reviw of the arts and crafts

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.
 

roppo

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!!!
 

missy

F.M. Tarot said:
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.
Click to expand...

*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:
 

roppo

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.
 

roppo

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

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
 

roppo

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.
 
RWS drawings in "Card-Reading" by Minetta The outfit of Mr. 2 of Pentacles