The Waite–Smith Deck
Strength
Not force but composure — a lion quieted by a calm hand.
- Work
- from the 1909 Waite–Smith deck
- Plate
- Major Arcana · Key 8
- Maker
- Pamela Colman Smith, for A. E. Waite
- Date
- 1909
- Source
- Published London, 1909 · scan: Wikimedia Commons
Format
The full-resolution scan, color-managed to the source plate — yours to print, study, and explore.
Size
$29.00
The story
A woman in white gently closes — or opens — the jaws of a lion, the lemniscate of infinity floating above her head. Pamela Colman Smith drew her in 1909 for the card A. E. Waite numbered eight, where older decks had placed Justice. It is not force but composure: the beast quieted by a calm hand. Smith completed all seventy-eight images in a matter of months for a single flat fee, and the deck was credited to others for a hundred years. Notice the chain of roses at her waist, and the small 'PCS' monogram in the corner. This house prints her name.
See it on your wall
The plate, in your home
Strength printed large and framed, hung in rooms like yours. Every edition ships ready to become the piece the room is built around.
About this reproduction
- A faithful reproduction of a public-domain plate — from the 1909 Waite–Smith deck (1909), held by Published London, 1909 · scan: Wikimedia Commons. The work was published before 1931 and is centuries out of copyright.
- Printed to order on 200gsm EMA matte art paper; framed pieces sit behind acrylic, no mat.
- Color-managed to the source scan; we correct nothing and invent nothing.
- Ships in 5–10 business days, rolled in a heavy-wall tube (framed pieces ship flat-packed).
- If it arrives less than perfect, we reprint or refund — your choice.
Why our plates cost more than a poster: we print from the highest-resolution scans available, at sizes where the engraving itself becomes visible — the emblem line, the letterpress bite, the registration of colour — on stock made to outlive its owner.
From the same hand
