Roses & Lilies v Pam A Tarot - Conrad Steyn Versions

[@tigerlybalm]

The Pam A scans are provided by Kenji Ishimatsu (with special permission for reproduction) (:

[@pawstalk]

Thanks for that. I can never remember his name.

[@SoNiels]

Great video outlining these decks!

[@pawstalk]

Thanks! :)

[@Anthony-xe5db]

I want to say if you’re a Pamela Colman Smith purest then go with the Lillies and Roses deck and/or Pam A deck as they’re taken from the same original drawing/printing tiles drawn by P.C.S. herself. If you’re a collector then of course it doesn’t matter and get them all lol. Pam B and C aren’t from Pamela Colman Smith' original art drawings/printing tiles as they were re-drawn by a different artist or copyist around 1919 that tried to duplicate/replicate the line drawings of hers but was off in donig so in some area on some cards (like the Sun and Lovers to name a few with some instances just looking sloppy.) It’s believed Pam B is from the same drawings/tiles/new artist or copyist as Pam C but was just an inferior printing run to Pam C. That’s why L&R and Pam A look identical yet look slightly different in some line drawings compared to Pam B and C yet Pam B and C look almost indentical to one another. Why this was done by Arthur Waite no one knows, but probably because the original art work and original tiles were lost or destroyed by that point in 1919 so new ones had to be re-drawn for new printing tile plates for those further post 1920 print releases. Pam D is believed to be a low quality photographic reproduction copy taken from a Pam A deck (but on inferior cardstock and sometimes being badly cropped) released right at the same time or right before Pam C was released in 1920. I believe the order of release is L&R, Pam A, Pam C, Pam D (same time as C), then Pam B. Why P.C.S. didn’t do the re-drawings herself isn’t known. But in a letter written by her to someone on November 19, 1909 she tells the person it was a big job creating the art work for those cards, and she got very little cash out of it in return. She doesn’t mentioned it, but she also most likely knew that she didn’t receive any direct credit for her work by A.E. Waite for doing the art work drawings for him for the cards (which was common in that era.) Interesting about that letter if one want’s too Google it to read, is that she kind of indicates she had retained the original art work drawings and was going to give or sell some of them to that person in the letter which could be the reason the originals weren’t around in 1919 to be printed from. But it's unknown one way or the other if she actually did so or not. The original tiles themselves could of been lost or destroyed for any number of reasons including because of WWI by 1919. P.C.S. fully converted to Catholicism later in life and distanced herself from her past involvement with the occult and Gold Dawn stuff, so that could be another reason for her lack of involvement later on. The L&R was something of a protype by A.E. Waite with a very limited test run on lighter cardstock not really meant for general use and with a lighter printing ink run. When A.E. Waite offically released the cards in 1910 he used better cardstock meant for active usage, and used a different more deeper printing press for the 1910 Pam A release, and changed to a crackle back image. Then he issued a recall of the L&R decks saying that he would give anyone with a L&R deck a Pam A deck for free if they sent back their L&R deck which is probably why only like five are known to exist tot his day as there weren't many made to begin with and those that were had been exchanged in for the Pam A deck. Waite didn't actually use the terms of Pam A or B or C as the letter identificaiton only came decades later to help us know and identify which release runs belong to which release dates. So if you're someone that wants to use the cards and wants a deck that comes from P.C.S. actual drawining art prints and tiles that she had drawn herself (not a copyest or artists re-drawing of her work) then L&R and Pam A decks are the cards to use.