Re: Pamela Colman Smith Shrine

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Thanx Peeps -

I almost didn't finish the last post! After I wrote the line
over the last 4 days I have often used biographical and bibliographic material from the wonderful web pages devoted to her work-
I had to open Text Editor (I'm on OS X) to find one of the links I needed to list. Text edit hung instead. So I forced quit. I knew I was in for trouble so I pressed the 'submit' button and posted what I had written unfinished, so I wouldn't loose all that. Quit the web browser. Then tried to delete the preference file for Text Editor. Trash hung when I tried to empty it ! So then Finder hung. I force quit Finder. Then I tried to restart the computer. No dice. I had to do a 'forced ungraceful shutdown" (fortunately not while I was writing anything to disk). After reboot I had to run 'repair disk permissions'. This all took about an hour. Then I returned to forum to finish with my ending notes and links. -
Pamela Coleman Smith isn't the only one who has suffered for her art
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Anway - As I finished the post I had to Google for something. I found the most wonderful link of all ! A thread at Aeclectic Tarot called 'The Green Sheaf' started by "roppo". It turns out that 'roppo' is the guy behind The Occult Art Gallery' Website which I've linked to above. And all those wonderful jpg's are his ! Apparently, he has been doing what I have been doing for the last 5 days. But he's been doing it for years, and doing it in the real world. He is finding and buying hard copies of all these books and magazines from around the world and having them shipped to him in Japan !!! He has then made digital files of the art and posted them on his 2 websites (and at Aeclectic Tarot). If you start at the beginning of his thread and read every word and explore every link, you will find what has to be the biggest treasure trove of Pixie paintings on the internet. Almost everything she's ever done. I have just cobbled together a little shrine. This man has built a true monument -
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.ph ... ge=1&pp=10
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Last edited by hoo on 14 Jan 2011, 03:42, edited 1 time in total.
Deliver me from reasons why you'd rather cry - I'd rather fly...
Jim Morrison - The Crystal Ship

Re: Pamela Colman Smith Shrine

13
Thanx for the contribution Mary ! I have a link to your blog above, but it's to the page with a rare pic of PCS. When I started this shrine last week, I didn't know a thing about her. Every web page had new and interesting threads. I never had the time to explore yours fully and might have missed this llink list of yours for weeks or months. This is a great link list for research ! I just read a page about Pixies own instructions for the use of her cards - http://marygreer.wordpress.com/2008/03/ ... the-cards/ . On this same page there are comments by Richard Davis McLeod on PCS's conversion to Catholicism, and the last half of her life. Very interesting material. Well, I've known mystics and visionaries who have done even stranger things than joining the Catholic church, as a perfectly logical step on their path (when they explain it to you!). Indeed, the Tarot itself is full of Christian symbols anyway.
I have to draw attention to 2 important links on your blog.
The Craftsman magazine facsimilies at 'Digital Library for the Decorative Arts and Material' Culture
  • http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bi ... HOMEDESIGN
    This page links to full issue facsimiles of many issues of the same mag that the famous photo of Pixie I used for this shrine is in. If you type her name in the search you will get a list of links to a facsimile of every page where her name appears in all the issues that are available at the website.
    One of those links is to a 3pg article written by Pamela Colman Smith !
The Beinecke Yale Libraries web site turns out to have a very important and unexpected treasure trove !
  • http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/digitallibrary/
    This link is not to a gallery, but to a search box. You cannot bookmark the search results pages at the Beinecke online. Type Pamela colman Smith in the search box at this page and you will have before you a page with thumbnail links for 11 paintings from what I believe must be the famous Alfred Stieglitz Photo-Secession exhibition. (also there are 10 selected facsimiles from her Tarot deck and the letter to Stieglitz).
    http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/dl_cro ... &srchtype=
    One of my favourites is 'The Blue Cat'
    bluecat.jpg bluecat.jpg Viewed 19185 times 9.4 KiB
    http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/dl_cro ... id=1007199
    If you click on the thumbnail it will open a page with a lo-rez jpg and some details on the right. Then click on the link for "Call Number YCAL MSS 85" It will open a page of thumbnails for the Alfred Stieglitz / Georgia OKeeffe archive. There are 16 thumbs per page, and 52 pages ! The same paintings by our Pixie begin on the first page of thumbnails and end on the second, I browsed through all 52 pages hoping against hope to find a long lost photo of PCS, but was disappointed (Lots of pics of Georgia O'keefe, but none of Pixie). Surely there must be more than one great photo by one of the worlds greates photographers, of one of his exhibitors ?!
    However, I did find, way toward the end of the 52 pages, a thumbnail for one more painting by PCS which did not appear in the search results page ! It's called 'Queen of the Tides'
    http://130.132.81.94/dl_crosscollex/pho ... chtype=CNO
Important Note !!! There are 3 links below each thumbnail for each painting.
4x 8x zoom
4x is lo-rez, 8x mid-rez. But the ZOOM link hides something totally spectacular. MrSid files (Multiresolution Seamless Image Database)! These are very hi-rez facsimiles. They are much like jpeg2000 files. So hi-rez that you can zoom in so close to the photo that you can see the tooth in the watercolor page, and evey stroke in exquisite detail. You couldn't get a closer view if you had your eyeball pressed right up against it !
('Queen of the Tides' has only the 4x and 8x resolutions, no .sid file. It looks like a scan of a page from a book.)
You need to install the 'ExpressView Browser Plug-in' from the .sid file maintainers 'Lizardtech'.
http://www.lizardtech.com/downloads/plugins.php
This file format is used at the Beinecke and at Library of Congress and others
http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/form ... 0031.shtml
Unfortunately, it is no longer available for Mac OS X
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http://www.lizardtech.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=317
I did a search and could not find a DMG hosted anywhere. I saved mine when I installed it on my MacBookPro in Dec. of 2009. This is probably the last version distributed. I suppose I could email it if any of you need it. The MrSid experience is quite remarkable. I'd hate for anyone to not be able to see the Pamela Colman Smith artwork in .sid file formats available at the Beinecke.
I use Safari and when I just click on the 'zoom' link it downloads. Some browsers might need you to 'save link' or 'save link as' It will have the .sid extention if it is the right method. (Don't forget to choose a file location ahead of time in your browser preferences!)
Deliver me from reasons why you'd rather cry - I'd rather fly...
Jim Morrison - The Crystal Ship

Re: Pamela Colman Smith Shrine

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The 'Pamela Colman Smith Commemorative Set' - Well, last week, right after I started this project, I walked over to Field's Books
http://www.fieldsbooks.com/cgi-bin/fields/index.html
on Polk St here in San Francisco, and ordered this. It came today. I am happy as a clam. It is very nicely done for a modern publication. A festooned keepsake box which opens up almost like an old game set. Into two halves. each has a lid with a ribbon attached to help lift it. These lids each have very nice and romantic looking illustrations from PCS's work. One on each lid, in the shape of an oval like a cameo brooch or pendant would be.

Lift the right lid up and there is her famous deck. This particular deck is done very well. The cards feel right in the hand, and of proper thickness. The printing has an 'authentic' look about it. The backs have her artists monogram in diagonal corners, and a floral design. This floral design appears in the banner carried by the knight of the 'Death" card in her deck. It's a truly beautiful back. It looks very oriental, and in the way that Chinese and Japanese style was represented at the fin de siecle. I see nothing like this back at Holly's Rider-Waite site
http://home.comcast.net/~vilex/Cardbacks.html
If it's new, then it's a quite wonderful addition.

Lift the left lid and there is a long ribbon which makes a fine handle to pick everything up out of the well without causing damge to the contents (The right well doesn't have this ribbon, but there is a delicate tarot bag to put the cards in, and it ties with a ribbon). Up comes a copy of 'The Artwork And Times Of Panela Colman Smith - By Stewart Kaplan. This is a smallish, slim trade paper book. The cover feels sturdier, thicker than an average book. I'm not so sure about it's stiffness, though, and how that will stand up against a good thorough reading ( I'll report back !). There is also a copy of Waites 'Pictorial Key to the Tarot'. Curiously, this book has almost no illustrations. None of the cards, that I could find. I guess the publisher figured it comes in the case with cards, so why be redundant. I myself might have made it a stand-alone book with frontispieces of both Waite and Smith as well. Anyway, the whole thing really is a package. Indeed, you could simply take this whole folding cabinet box with you, and be able to open it rather ceremoniously, lifting only the right panel to reveal and produce the cards for use, and it would be quite impressive I think.
As a final satisfying flourish, there are some 'extras'. A little flyer advertising the [b]'5 card love spread'[/b] w/diagram, and 2 further layouts inside. 6 postcards of her art (one is a tarot card- the Empress), 4 larger cards, of which 3 are also reproductions of her paintings. The fourth large card a B/W portrait card. The antique photo we see everywhere. I've only seen 3 photos of Pixie anywhere, so far. This is the best one anyway. Exotic and, well, pixie-faced, swathed in mystic satin and beads. I have read that it is her in her Annancy story-telling outfit. I love this photo. It is so approriate for the artist behind this famous Tarot deck ! And I realize now that I finally have this package in my hands, that it is quite serendipitous to have such a remarkably spell-binding portrait of the authoress to use to publicize the deck of cards with. It's perfect really. The whole affair is really bewitching. The longer the deck is sitting here on my desk as I type ( the photo of Pixie now leaning against the wall behind my laptop), the more I love the look of it. If I ever tell a fortune, it will be with this deck !
Deliver me from reasons why you'd rather cry - I'd rather fly...
Jim Morrison - The Crystal Ship

Re: Pamela Colman Smith Shrine

15
I am having so much fun at this I cannot believe it. In my profile, I'm just kidding because of the avatar and all. But now I swear I really am flying. In San Francisco. You can't see me, hahaha, but I'm flying. I'm flying around the room!!!

I started to read the Kaplan book that came w/ the Set. ('The Artwork and Times of Pamela Colman Smith'). I'm doing it the way I've been doing it for awhile now. Sitting in front of the computer and stopping to google for things every once in a while. On page 11 Kaplan says
'Her first article, published in 1896 by the Journal of American Folklore, was a transcription of Jamaican fairytales and was titled "Two Negro Stories From Jamaica".
I'll bet I know just how to find that, I said to myself. And I did. I zeroed right in on it !
the Journal of American Folklore, And, so you don't have to dig down to that page, Ladies and Gents! may I present:
Pamela Colman Smith STARRING IN
" THE REAL DEAL " - Act 1 of 2
'ANNANCY AND THE YAM HILLS'
One time Annancy libed in a country where the Queen's name was Five, an' she was a witch; an' she say whoeber say five was to fall down dead. It was berry hungry times, and so Annancy go build himself a little house by de side of de riber. An' him make five yam hills. An' when anybody come to get water at de riber he call them an' say: "I beg you tell me how many yam hills I hab here. I can't count berry well." So den dey would come in and say, "One, two, three, four, five !" an' fall down dead. Then Annancy take dem an' corn dem in his barrel an' eat dem, an' so he live in hungry times - in plenty. So time go on, an' one day Guinea fowl come dat way, an' Annancy say : "Beg you, Missus, tell me how many yam hills hab I here."'So Guinea fowl go an' sit on hill an' say" One, two, three, four, an' de one I am sittin' on" "Cho !" say Annancy; "you don't count it right !" An' Guinea fowl mouve to anoder yam hill an' say: "Yes, one, two, three, four, an' de one I am sittin'on!" "He! you don't count right at all!" "How you count, den?" "Why dis way," say Annancy: "One, two, three, four, five!" an' he fell down dead, an' Guinea fowl eat him up! Dis story show dat " Greedy choak puppy."
Act 2 of 2
DE STORY OF DE MAN AND SIX POACHED EGGS.
Once a man go travellin' an' he get hungry, so he stop at a tavern an' order something to eat, so dey bring him six poached eggs. He eat dem, but he did not hab any money, so he say he would come back an'pay. In six years - or maybe it was more — he come back an' pay sixpence for de eggs. But den de tavern keeper say dat if he had not eaten de six poached eggs dey might hab been chickens, and den de chickens would hab grown up and hatch more chickens,an' dey more - an' more — an' more — an' tell de man he must pay six pounds instead of sixpence. An' de man say he would not. So dey go to de judge. An' while dey was conversin' a boy come in wid a bundle under his arm. An' de judge say: "What you got in de bundle?" and de boy say, "Parch'peas, sa!" "What you goin' dowiddem?" "Plantdem,sa!" "Hi!"say de judge,"you can't plant parch'peas, dey won't grow!" "Well, sa, an' poached eggs won't hatch!" So dey dismiss de man and he neber pay a penny! Dis story show dat you mus' neber count you' eggs before dey hatch!
Caricature of PCS is by a contemporary, Marius de Zayas - from a citation and link found at Aeclectic
http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php? ... stcount=36
Last edited by hoo on 14 Jan 2011, 02:21, edited 1 time in total.
Deliver me from reasons why you'd rather cry - I'd rather fly...
Jim Morrison - The Crystal Ship

Re: Pamela Colman Smith Shrine

16
Hi Hoo,

Yes, the Commemorative Set is truly wondrous. I believe Roppo supplied Kaplan with some of the material for it. I'm picturing you flying around the room in San Francisco and feeling the joy here in the UK - isn't the Internet a miracle!?
Let us know if you ever decide to read fortunes - and thank you for Pamela's Shrine - our poor Plush Parlo(u)r doesn't get too much use...:)

Pen
He's not the Messiah, he's a very naughty boy...

Re: Pamela Colman Smith Shrine

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Pen wrote:Yes, the Commemorative Set is truly wondrous. I believe Roppo supplied Kaplan with some of the material for it. I'm picturing you flying around the room...
He sure did
Image
In the Acknowledgements page at the front of Kaplan's bio of PCS, 'roppo' is credited with "providing additional Pamela Colman Smith Art from The British Empire Shakespeare Society and from the book, The Sinclairs"
In fact, the cover of the keepsake box for the entire set itself can be seen at roppo's blog
http://grimoire.blog.ocn.ne.jp/doll/files/BESS01.jpg
'roppo' posted this link before Kaplan's book was published, on his 'The Green Sheaf' thread at Aeclectic Tarot-
The folio-sized "The British Empire Shakespeare Society" was among the few. Today I received it and found four exellent large hand-coloured pictures in it. I danced, yelled, running around my house like a mad man as usual.
http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php? ... stcount=54
It must be 'Pixie Dust'
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'roppo' has a post in the same thread, after Kaplan's book was published that says this -
The book contains 127 pictures and in my estimation 40 works are not to be seen anywhere else, even on line ( I have 53 of them and am not sure this figure is great or not). I provided 3 works to the book from my colleciton, one of which is the "Much Ado About Nothing" printed on the keepsake box.
http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php? ... stcount=95
Some additons for this thread -
2nd story of Pixie's Annancy tales( from the page in The Journal of American Folklore). I simply edited the post above containing the 1st story and added it beneath. By the time I posted the 1st, I had to force myself to go to bed so I could wake up for work the next morning.
I also had run across 2 other links when I found the Annancy material.
Facsimile's of The Craftsman from a different source in pdf.
  • Vol 23 Oct. 1912 - March 1913 contains the artIcle 'THE FAIRY FAITH AND PICTURED MUSIC OF PAMELA COLMAN SMITH' - by M. Irwin Macdonald This is the one with the famous portrait of her in her story telling outfit. pg 20-26 of the book/ pg 44-50 of the PDF
    http://www.archive.org/details/craftsman23newyuoft
Deliver me from reasons why you'd rather cry - I'd rather fly...
Jim Morrison - The Crystal Ship

Re: Pamela Colman Smith Shrine

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Thanx Pen, for 'A Chronological Inexactitude" :-o
This is very naughty of you. I guess it's a good idea for you to have put it in the 'Happy Historians Lounge' where only logged in members can see it. But this won't necessarily keep it from being propagated all over the net :D
Deliver me from reasons why you'd rather cry - I'd rather fly...
Jim Morrison - The Crystal Ship