Wheel of Fortune

A great wheel turns in a cloudy sky, lettered T-A-R-O around its rim, a sphinx above and a serpent descending one side. In the four corners the winged figures of the fixed signs read their books. Pamela Colman Smith drew it in 1909 as the card of the turning wheel — rise and fall made into a single revolving image. Smith completed the deck at speed for a flat fee, and for the better part of a century the wheel of her own credit stayed at the bottom. Her small 'PCS' monogram sits in the corner of the plate, as on all seventy-eight.

Maker

Pamela Colman Smith, for A. E. Waite

Date

1909

Medium of the original

Plate

Original held by

Published London, 1909 · scan: Wikimedia Commons

Credit

Published London, 1909 · scan: Wikimedia Commons

Rights

Public domain, verified

Catalogue number

PA-00437