ROSE OF THE PALACE OF FIRE, 1969
Watercolour and oil on paper, laid down on board. 27½ x 38½in. (70.5 x 99.0cm.)
Signed with monogram and dated ’69 lower right. Signed, dated and inscribed with the title on the backing paper.
Provenance:
Sotheby’s studio sale, 24th April 1985, lot 549.
Sotheby’s, Conduit Street, 16th January 1986, lot 9.
Christies, South Kensington, 4th March 1999. Lot No 216. Illustrated in colour in the catalogue. Dimensions given as 33 x 43½in (83.7 x 110.5 cm.)
Peter Nahum at the Leicester Galleries.
Exhibited:
West Berlin, 1969 No. 85.
Berlin, Kunstamt Wilmersdorf, 1969, No. 23, as Die Rose des Feverpalastes.
Exeter, City of Exeter Art Gallery, 1972, No. 26.
Literature
Ratcliffe (2007) illus. col. pl. 49
The Rose of the Palace of Fire is the poetical name given by Golden Dawn magicians to the Wand court card in the Taro pack, more commonly called the Knave. It is also known by a variety of other names, including Princess of Wands and Princess of the Shining Flame. The gender confusion is the responsibility of A.E. Waite, who substituted knaves for princesses. The suit of Wands is associated with the element fire. The Princess represents the earthy part of Fire.
According to Golden Dawn Taro attributions, each princess ruled one quadrant of the celestial heavens from the North Pole of the zodiac to the 45 degree of latitude north of the ecliptic. Together, the princesses form the thrones of the four aces who rule in Kether. See Regardie (2002) p596 for further details.
Reference
Ratcliffe, E. Ithell Colquhoun. Mandrake, Oxford. 2007.
Regardie, I. The Golden Dawn. 6th revised edition. Llewellyn Publications. St. Paul, Minnesota, 2002.