--- product_id: 1529570 title: "Pamela Colman Smith Commemorative Set" price: "730 kr" currency: DKK in_stock: true reviews_count: 7 url: https://www.desertcart.dk/products/1529570-pamela-colman-smith-commemorative-set store_origin: DK region: Denmark --- # 78 authentic Rider-Waite-Smith cards Muted vintage color palette with textured print Includes Pictorial Key & biography booklets Pamela Colman Smith Commemorative Set **Price:** 730 kr **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Summary > 🔮 Own a piece of tarot history—where art meets mystique! ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** Pamela Colman Smith Commemorative Set - **How much does it cost?** 730 kr with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.dk](https://www.desertcart.dk/products/1529570-pamela-colman-smith-commemorative-set) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Key Features - • **Authentic Vintage Vibes:** Experience the original 1900s tarot artistry with muted, textured colors that evoke timeless charm. - • **Premium Handling & Durability:** Thicker, non-slippery cards riffle smoothly yet feel sturdy, perfect for daily readings or display. - • **Comprehensive Collector’s Set:** Beyond cards—includes detailed Pictorial Key, artist biography, prints, and a keepsake box for true aficionados. ## Overview The Pamela Colman Smith Commemorative Set is a meticulously crafted tarot collection featuring the iconic Rider-Waite-Smith deck with authentic muted colors and textured printing. It includes the Pictorial Key to the Tarot, a glossy biography of Pamela Colman Smith’s art, collectible prints, and a sturdy keepsake box. Designed for tarot enthusiasts and collectors, this set balances historical authenticity with practical usability, making it a must-have for those who appreciate both the art and the mysticism of tarot. ## Description Pamela Colman Smith Commemorative Set [Stuart Kaplan, Pamela Colman Smith] on desertcart.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Pamela Colman Smith Commemorative Set Review: Gorgeous Deck Takes You Back with the Artist - First, make sure this is the Pamela Coleman Smith Commemorative Edition (PCSC ed.) not the Centennial—I mean, assuming that’s what you want. (The other seems similar, but smaller, and in a tin, and I don’t own them.). [This review has been edited to add pictures and expand on some points, but mostly to correct the appalling typos!] I can’t say enough about these cards. Others might think they’re too dark, or not as striking at the usual RWS versions, or whatever, and that’s fine. There are plenty of choices for us all. I think this one gives you an antique choice—this may be as close to the original RWS deck as we can get. The cards are are not too thick to handle with ease. CBD Tarot de Marseille and The Golden Tarot are examples of “riffle-proof” decks. Those cards are so thick it’s nearly impossible to shuffle by flexing two halves between your hands so they whisk together like magic. Many prefer the running (overhand) shuffle anyway. But the PCSC ed. deck under review riffles with ease. The flip side is they are thin enough to bow if you do crazy things with your cards like put them in a bag beneath your head at night. CBD wouldn’t be bothered by that, but you know what you expect from your deck. Make no mistake: these are well-made cards that won’t feel flimsy or likely to wear out soon. So take them for a spin and come back smiling at the ease of handling. What do they look like? Old Timey. The colors are muted which makes a huge difference. There aren’t differences in the illustrations—this is just a beautiful, historical deck that transports to you the turn of the 20th Century. Now-beloved artist Pamela Coleman “Pixie” Smith did a job for A.E. Waite she described as a lot of work for very little money! Call me sentimental, but I felt closer to the artist with this deck. They are not only pretty, but have a great vibe. The word “tasteful” comes to mind. I can’t think of anything quite like it. I have included a picture of couple of familiar ladies and the back. Smith’s distinctive initials that are tucked away all tiny in a corner of almost every card are great big on the backs. There is something self-consciously artistic and charming about them, now seen large and proud. Almost touching. This is HER commemorative edition, after all, so it’s a good reaction! I’m not sure how well it comes through, but the yellow backgrounds are very slightly mottled as opposed to the bright flat (some would say garish) color of the typical RWS deck. The printing process leaves visible lines to shade the skin—if you look very, very closely you can see it. Check out the closeup of Strength. At normal distances for reading or other work, you’re not going to notice. Overall, it adds to—indeed is—the authenticity, which is why you’re interested in this deck, right? There is seldom a great match in RWS decks with the busy details and colors (except for recolored decks done well) and the faithful reproduction does not help here with that, but I don’t see it as a problem. Nothing is obscured. The muted colors may be less of a distraction. A lot of other stuff comes with the attractively designed and strong double box. A nice see-through bag for example. Some have expressed doubt whether it will protect your cards. I have had the same kind of bag with another deck and it was great. Even if it’s just until you get a different bag, it’s nice. There’s a lovely book about Pixie herself. It and several additional non-tarot cards shows a sample of her less-familiar work. The other side of the box holds A.E. Waite’s familiar “Pictorial” Key to the Tarot without pictures. Imagine this was out for the first time! I think sometimes A.E.W. Is given too little credit, just as P.C.S. has been too little credit. His book isn’t bad, operating as he was under oaths of secrecy and apparently sometimes none too sure what Pixie had done with a few illustrations! This is a beautiful deck that belongs in the collection of every tarot fancier, especially those interested in the deck that seized the imagination of the English-speaking world and became simply “The Tarot” for countless students. Review: Probably the best traditional R-W-S set available - 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. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | ASIN | 1572816392 | | Best Sellers Rank | #410,051 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #336 in Card Games (Books) #487 in Fortune Telling #1,171 in Tarot | | Customer Reviews | 4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars (505) | | Dimensions | 5.25 x 3.25 x 7.25 inches | | Edition | Deluxe | | ISBN-10 | 9781572816398 | | ISBN-13 | 978-1572816398 | | Item Weight | 2.7 pounds | | Language | English | | Print length | 340 pages | | Publication date | April 29, 2009 | | Publisher | U.S. Games Systems, Inc. | ## Images ![Pamela Colman Smith Commemorative Set - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71OtglKEGaL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Gorgeous Deck Takes You Back with the Artist *by C***R on August 27, 2018* First, make sure this is the Pamela Coleman Smith Commemorative Edition (PCSC ed.) not the Centennial—I mean, assuming that’s what you want. (The other seems similar, but smaller, and in a tin, and I don’t own them.). [This review has been edited to add pictures and expand on some points, but mostly to correct the appalling typos!] I can’t say enough about these cards. Others might think they’re too dark, or not as striking at the usual RWS versions, or whatever, and that’s fine. There are plenty of choices for us all. I think this one gives you an antique choice—this may be as close to the original RWS deck as we can get. The cards are are not too thick to handle with ease. CBD Tarot de Marseille and The Golden Tarot are examples of “riffle-proof” decks. Those cards are so thick it’s nearly impossible to shuffle by flexing two halves between your hands so they whisk together like magic. Many prefer the running (overhand) shuffle anyway. But the PCSC ed. deck under review riffles with ease. The flip side is they are thin enough to bow if you do crazy things with your cards like put them in a bag beneath your head at night. CBD wouldn’t be bothered by that, but you know what you expect from your deck. Make no mistake: these are well-made cards that won’t feel flimsy or likely to wear out soon. So take them for a spin and come back smiling at the ease of handling. What do they look like? Old Timey. The colors are muted which makes a huge difference. There aren’t differences in the illustrations—this is just a beautiful, historical deck that transports to you the turn of the 20th Century. Now-beloved artist Pamela Coleman “Pixie” Smith did a job for A.E. Waite she described as a lot of work for very little money! Call me sentimental, but I felt closer to the artist with this deck. They are not only pretty, but have a great vibe. The word “tasteful” comes to mind. I can’t think of anything quite like it. I have included a picture of couple of familiar ladies and the back. Smith’s distinctive initials that are tucked away all tiny in a corner of almost every card are great big on the backs. There is something self-consciously artistic and charming about them, now seen large and proud. Almost touching. This is HER commemorative edition, after all, so it’s a good reaction! I’m not sure how well it comes through, but the yellow backgrounds are very slightly mottled as opposed to the bright flat (some would say garish) color of the typical RWS deck. The printing process leaves visible lines to shade the skin—if you look very, very closely you can see it. Check out the closeup of Strength. At normal distances for reading or other work, you’re not going to notice. Overall, it adds to—indeed is—the authenticity, which is why you’re interested in this deck, right? There is seldom a great match in RWS decks with the busy details and colors (except for recolored decks done well) and the faithful reproduction does not help here with that, but I don’t see it as a problem. Nothing is obscured. The muted colors may be less of a distraction. A lot of other stuff comes with the attractively designed and strong double box. A nice see-through bag for example. Some have expressed doubt whether it will protect your cards. I have had the same kind of bag with another deck and it was great. Even if it’s just until you get a different bag, it’s nice. There’s a lovely book about Pixie herself. It and several additional non-tarot cards shows a sample of her less-familiar work. The other side of the box holds A.E. Waite’s familiar “Pictorial” Key to the Tarot without pictures. Imagine this was out for the first time! I think sometimes A.E.W. Is given too little credit, just as P.C.S. has been too little credit. His book isn’t bad, operating as he was under oaths of secrecy and apparently sometimes none too sure what Pixie had done with a few illustrations! This is a beautiful deck that belongs in the collection of every tarot fancier, especially those interested in the deck that seized the imagination of the English-speaking world and became simply “The Tarot” for countless students. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Probably the best traditional R-W-S set available *by S***H on March 1, 2021* 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. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Review *by M***6 on January 9, 2016* 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。 ## Frequently Bought Together - Pamela Colman Smith Commemorative Set - Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom: A Tarot Journey to Self-Awareness (A New Edition of the Tarot Classic) - Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom: A Book of Tarot --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.dk/products/1529570-pamela-colman-smith-commemorative-set](https://www.desertcart.dk/products/1529570-pamela-colman-smith-commemorative-set) --- *Product available on Desertcart Denmark* *Store origin: DK* *Last updated: 2026-04-22*