The Waite–Smith Deck
The Hierophant
The keeper of received tradition, between two pillars.
- Work
- from the 1909 Waite–Smith deck
- Plate
- Major Arcana · Key 5
- 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 robed figure raises his hand in blessing between two pillars, two attendants kneeling before him, crossed keys at his feet. Pamela Colman Smith drew him in 1909 as the keeper of received tradition — the outward, institutional answer to the High Priestess's inner one. Smith, working at speed for a flat fee, gave the scene its solemn symmetry and its jewel colour. For a century the deck was credited to A. E. Waite and its publisher, and not to the artist who drew every line of it. Her 'PCS' monogram waits in the lower corner, where she signed all seventy-eight.
See it on your wall
The plate, in your home
The Hierophant 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
