UnitedCardists.com - The forum for Cardistry, Magic, Custom Decks and All Things Playing Cards.

I thought I would upload images of cards from some of my favorite decks from my collection.

Remember, I am a collector, NOT a cardist, so I cannot speak to how well these decks handle, nor what they look like in a fan, etc.

I love the artwork on each, but Your Mileage May Vary.

The scans, and my descriptions of the decks, are from my old web site "The Bob Lancaster Gallery of Unusual Playing Cards"

=====[ Palekh ]=====


This very striking deck, with its black backgrounds and finely detailed images, was printed in 1967 to celebrate the Soviet Playing Card industry's 150th anniversary (1817-1967).

The scanned-in images here do not do the cards justice! Much of what appears as brown here is a bright, metallic gold on the actual cards.

[indent]
Here is an eBay auction for what appears to be this deck (NOTE: This deck has been reprinted more than once, some editions with borders of a different color, some without the metallic ink.):

http://www.ebay.com/itm/PLAYING-CARDS-P ... 4165ff1cf7" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
[/indent]

=====[ LeFlorentin ]=====


In 1955, French playing card publisher Editions Philibert produced what was to become regarded by many as one of the most beautiful decks of playing cards ever designed.

Artist Paul-Emile Becat took four years to design and create the memorable images in the deck, which was produced in a limited edition of 12,000 decks.

An article about the deck was published in the Spring, 1962 edition of Eros magazine, with the following information about Becat's inspiration for the images:

"For many of his illustrations Becat drew upon a set of paintings by Renaissance masters which the monk Savonrola had destroyed in 1496 because they revealed too much of the intrigue and sordidness of Borgia family life. Savonrola was greatly beholden to the Borgias. Detailed descriptions of these paintings had been preserved, however, and it was from them that Becat was able to paint a number of his miniatures. The balance of his pictures he based on other Florentine themes."

[indent]
Is frequently listed on eBay, but none are there as of now (10/26/2012).
[/indent]

=====[ Rockwell International ]=====


Published in 1980 by Rockwell International to commemorate the inaugural launch of the first space shuttle, this clever deck works on many levels.

The Kings and Queens are represented by astronauts, while the Jacks depict support staff down at Mission Control. Being a computer programmer, the deck has a place in my heart as the only deck I've seen with a data processing professional in one of the courts! (Jack of Hearts).

[indent]
I do not recall ever seeing this deck listed on eBay.
[/indent]


=====[ Jacob's Bible Playing Cards ]=====


[indent]
Here is one of several current eBay listings for the deck:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Jacobs- ... 3ccbcc95ea" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
[/indent]

Really like the Rockwell International Deck, Will have to keep my eye open for a deck of those .

Glad you like them, Nick. As I said, I don't recall ever seeing them turn up on eBay. I am not certain where I found my copy - I think it was in a swap meet in Southern California, just one of those lucky finds. I hope you stumble upon one as well some day!

Oh, I like the Florentin, it's a very stylish take on the content. I'll have to keep an eye peeled.

neongrey, (by the way, is "neon" one of the "fifty shades"? ) it does turn up on eBay a fair amount. You might want to set up a repeating search there for it which will email you if one turns up.

Funny you should ask...heh. But yeah, that's a good idea, I'll set that up.

Post pics, or it never happened.

@ RSLancastr
You have the same draw to card graphics that I have.

I have the white version of the Palekh, and many of my favourite decks have been Russian. Have you seen the Blosyak deck, and the Kortschma Restaurant deck by Valdislav Erko? It took time and patience but I was lucky enough to find both at prices I could afford. There is a Kortschma currently on ebay but that seller tends to inflate their prices (often doubles them). If you go to the sellers that that seller buys from you may find the same decks for much better prices.

I would love to stumble upon the Rockwell International to go with my Roswell Alien Deck - fact & mythology.

Did not previously think that much of the Florentin - just another series of images of vulnerable naked women with strong clothed male figures. The background you give it definitely adds to it's interest. Have you seen the Canosa?

dazzleguts wrote: ...and the Kortschma Restaurant deck by Valdislav Erko?...

There are two of them. Which one?
1) http://a.trionfi.eu/WWPCM/decks08/d06295/d06295.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
2) http://www.21king.ru/ru/museum/?deck=g03557&country=ru" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

dazzleguts wrote:Really like the Rockwell International Deck...

+1

By the way you can help with better pictures: http://a.trionfi.eu/WWPCM/decks11/d09295/d09295.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

More Paul-Emile Becat: http://a.trionfi.eu/WWPCM/decks03/d01015/d01015.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; I can be wrong but as I remember there were three decks designed by Paul-Emile Becat for Editions Philibert.

dazzleguts wrote:@ RSLancastr
You have the same draw to card graphics that I have.

Oh, you meant that you and I have the same attraction to card graphics! (Initially, I thought that you were saying that I used the same "draw-to-card" graphics program that you use, and I had NO idea what that meant!)

I have the white version of the Palekh

I had forgotten about the white version! I think I may even have one, but I much prefer the black one. It was the first black-faced deck I ever saw, and it really impressed me, so a white-faced version of it (I felt) robbed it of what made it special.

Who knows, had I seen the white one first, perhaps it would be my favorite of the two!

and many of my favourite decks have been Russian. Have you seen the Blosyak deck, and the Kortschma Restaurant deck by Valdislav Erko?

Neither rings a bell, sorry. Thanks, @Collector, for the links!

It took time and patience but I was lucky enough to find both at prices I could afford. There is a

Kortschma currently on ebay

Lovely, but not in my budget, sad to say.

Have you seen the large-format Russian deck called...something like "Evil Forces in Slavonic Mythology"? I will post some scans later in this topic)

I would love to stumble upon the Rockwell International to go with my Roswell Alien Deck - fact & mythology.

I have "The UFO Deck" and the "Alien Poker" deck (both with alien courts), which would also make good contrasting "companion pieces" wsith the Rockwell deck.

Did not previously think that much of the Florentin - just another series of images of vulnerable naked women with strong clothed male figures. The background you give it definitely adds to it's interest. Have you seen the Canosa?

Do you mean the Cassanova, also by Becat? I have it, but prefer the Florentin.

Collector wrote: I can be wrong but as I remember there were three decks designed by Paul-Emile Becat for Editions Philibert.

I only recall the two offhand (Le Florentinand Cassanova), and I think I have all of their non pin-up decks other than their Three Muskateer one, and I even have three or four of their pin-up ones (such as Deesses) - but I only read the articles!

==========[ Cilbras ]==========



I just got this one yesterday, an eBay purchase.

It is an Argentine Advertising deck, and a spin on a standard Spanish-suited deck.

In a standard Spanish-suited deck, the four suits are:

Copas (Cups), Bastos (cudgels), Oros (Gold Coins) and
Espadas (Swords).

The Coins and Swords in this deck, however, are replaced with automotive parts sold by Cilbras, the company which the deck advertises.

It's interesting to note that the Spade Pip in a modern French-suited deck (Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds and Spades) actually represents a sword tip, and not a shovel, as some people assume. And the word "Spade" is derived from "Espada" (Sword).

...and the court cards (in a Spanish-suited deck) are:

Sotas (Footsoldiers/Peasants), Caballos (Mounted soldiers/Knights) and Reis (Kings).

The cards I have included are:

Sota de Copas (Footsoldier/Peasant of Cups),
Tres de Bastos (Three of Cudgels),
Un de Oros (One of Gold/Coins)
Caballo de Espadas (Mounted Soldier/Knight of Swords)
Rei de Espadas (King of Swords) - included because the deck has no Joker
Card Back

Note the gaps in the frame around each card - a different number of breaks for each suit. This is used instead of an index pip to give a player access to what suit the card is in while the card is in a hand of cards.


==========[ Evil Forces in Slavonic Mythology ]==========



I received the deck as a present from my brother Jim (thanks Jim!) when he returned from a recent trip to Russia. I was immediately taken with the deck, for it was unusual in a number of ways:

the size: a nicely oversized 3" x 4.5" or so, making the images on the cards nice and large, with lots of room for detail.
the color: the predominantly beige color of the cards gives them a look at once warm and ancient.
the quality: the thickness of the cardstock was a very pleasant surprise, as many decks recently coming out of the former Soviet Union have had a thin, cheap feel to them. This one most definitely does not.
the courts: a veritable rogue's gallery of unsavory characters.
I wanted very much to display the deck here in the gallery, but my inability to read the Cyrillic text on the courts, title card or box prevented me from putting together the exhibit I felt the deck deserved. The court cards had what I assumed were the names of the characters, but there was only one I recognized: Baba Yaga, the wicked witch who figures prominantly in many Russian folk tales. Beyond that, I was stuck.

Months later, I happened to receive an email from a young lady named Mara, a fellow playing-card collector in the Ukraine. After some brief correspondence, she happily volunteered to translate the text for me! A big "thanks" to Mara for all her help, and for making this deck all the more enjoyable to me!

As I had assumed from Baba Yaga's presence, the deck features bad guys from old Slavonic folk-tales (I have read that they cannot properly be called "fairy tales", as they have no fairies...).

The deck's title card translates as:

"Playing cards
Evil Forces
in East Slavonic
Mythology
Painter
Alexey Orleansky"

Courts for each suit seems to feature characters which are encountered in a specific type of area: Club courts are water-based creatures, whether found in rivers, wells, lakes, ponds or the bath. Diamond courts are spirits of the home and farm. Spades and Hearts both feature characters you might meet unawares on the road or in the woods. Seems as though no place was safe...


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Cards on Display

All quotes below are directly from Mara. Her descriptions were so charming, and her fondness for the characters so contagious, I felt I could do no better.

The Queen of Hearts - "Baba Yaga (Baba - old woman, Yaga used to be her name, but in aggregate means: an old witch). She lives in the depths of the forest in IZBUSHKA (a hut) on chicken legs (whenever someone approaches the hut's front door, the chicken legs turn the hut to prevent entry! -BL). One of her legs is without flesh, just naked bones. She eats people (especially kids), and she flies in STUPA (mortar - something like big tun). Mainly she is an enemy, but sometimes she may help you with good advice - for instance how to kill Koschei (See Spade King -BL), or where to find his death."

The Jack of Clubs - "Bannik (baths-spirit). Baths-spirit lives in banya, he scares people there. Sometimes he is invisible, sometimes like an old naked man, dirty and covered with besom leaves."

The Ace of Diamonds - Each ace in the deck depicts a location where one or more of that suit's court characters might be encountered. The diamond court characters are normally found in the home and farm, so a mill is on the ace.

The King of Spades - "Kaschei or Koschei (the deathless) - An evil magician, whose death is hidden in the several enclosed-in-each-other magic animals and subjects. So, his death is on the tip of the needle, the needle is hidden in the hare, the hare is inside the duck, the duck is in the casket, the casket is hanging on the big oak.. And if you want to kill him you must break the needle!"

The Joker - A faun-like demon, shown sitting on a tree stump, studying the cards in his hand.

The Card back - A reversible design in which two bats are shown within fancy scrollwork.



==========[ Italian Cats ]==========



Here's a deck about which I know little, but thought it was lovely enough to deserve a place on my web site anyway.

Published in 1996 by Piatnik & Sons, of Vienna, the cards are illustrated by artist Evelyne Nicod.

By the way Evil Forces in Slavonic Mythology and White Palekh are designed by the same artist http://www.a.trionfi.eu/WWPCM/WWPCM/rus/orleansky.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

@Collector:

Interesting - thanks!

@collector
I will take your advice and post links to images of the decks I mention.

The white Palekh I have is actually a white version of the older black deck RSLancastr has while the Alex O. deck is a recent one Orleansky designed in the Palekh style, which is a regional miniature painting style.

My White Palekh looks like this:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WHITE-PALEKH- ... 1c2c9850eb" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The Kortschma I have is the second link you posted. It was published this year and I prefer it's more unusual illustrations to that of the first one, which I believe was published in 2005. Would love to know what the images are about since they seem very specific.


@RSLancastr
I like the white and black Palekh equally it's only that the white one crossed my path first. The black is more dramatic but the white is more delicate looking.

The "Evil Forces in Slavonic Mythology" is a wonderful deck. I recently found a second edition with the mushroom back. I like the bat back better. Thank you for posting the info from your friend on this deck - I will add it to the deck description in my records. Maybe Mara would know what the intriguing Kortschma deck images are about?

Here is the Blosyak:
http://alexblosyak.livejournal.com/65918.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Here is the Canosa:
http://www.dxpo-playingcards.com/xpo/pi ... nups12.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Here are some more of my favorite decks from my large collection of playing cards. I've been collecting seriously since around 1995.

Again, I am not a cardist, I only collect.

My collection focuses mostly on decks with custom courts, but I have decks of many types.

I chose the decks I'm selecting to show you here mostly because they were part of my old playing card web site, and so I already have the scans handy.

But they were on that web site mostly because I liked them, for any number of reasons.

The comments/descriptions below are also from my old web site.

Enjoy!

==========[ ALIEN POKER ]==========



Description:

In 1980, Williams Electronics produced the pinball game Alien Poker. Given the poker theme of the game, Williams decided to commission a deck of playing cards to use as a marketing "giveaway" for the game.

Tony Ramunni, who did the artwork on the game's scoreboard and playing field, was asked to design a deck of playing cards based on the game's theme.

This deck, with its psychedelic colors and other-worldly courts, is the happy result.

==========[ AMERICA ]==========



Description:

This deck, published by the Heraclio Fournier company of Vitoria, Spain, is one which is both beautiful and painstakingly researched.

Each of the four suits represents a different geographic region of the Americas, with the court cards depicting people from various tribes/peoples of that region:

Spades: North East Indians - Eskimoes, Atapases, Selishs, Tinglits, Haidas, etc.
Diamonds: Indians of the Prairies - Iroquies, Algonkins, Mohicans, Siuxs, Pueblo, Comanches, etc.
Hearts: Aztec Empire - Mayas, Toltecs, Chichimecs, and peoples of Central America and the Antillas.
Clubs: Incan Empire - Chibchas, Quimbayas, Collas and peoples of South America.
The deck comes with a booklet containing brief descriptions of the peoples depicted on the cards, as well as detailed descriptions of the costumes worn by each of the court cards, including references to source materials which inspired each piece of each costume!

The detailed notes in the booklet were written by the man who also drew the cards, Teodoro N. Miciano, "Professor of San Fernando High School of Fine Arts, Madrid".

==========[ ARRCO ]==========



Description:

Published in 1945 by the Arrco company to celebrate the Allied victory in World War II, this deck manages to capture the spirit of a time and place in history quite nicely.

==========[ ART QUILT DECK ]==========



Description:

Published in 1994 by Lark Books of Asheville, NC, this beautiful deck actually started back in 1992, when artist Sue Pierce "became intrigued with the idea of interpreting playing cards in fiber."

Pierce then contacted professional quilt artists all over America, asking them if they would like to participate in the project. Soon she had mailed each of fifty-four artists the playing card they were to interpret.

The only guidelines they were given: Each quilt would be 28 x 18 inches (meeting a standard bridge card's 14:9 ratio), have rounded corners, and must meet the project's definition of a quilt - "a stitched construction of three or more layers using fabric as the primary material". Pierce also encouraged each artist "to make a quilt in a style that would be representative of their work."

The result is an astonishing array of quilts, which was first displayed at the Smithsonian's Renwick Gallery in 1995 before embarking on a three-year tour of the country.

A wonderful book documenting the project, Art Quilts: Playing With a Full Deck (Sue Pierce and Verna Suit, Pomegranate Artbooks, ISBN 0-8765-300-X), was published in 1994, and belongs on the bookshelf of any playing-card collector. The first part of the book describes the genesis of the project, explains some of the diverse processes used in creating the quilts, and even contains brief sections on playing-card and quilting history.

The rest of the book consists of two-page spreads for each card in the deck. The left page gives a bio of the quilt's artist, and discusses the inspiration and techniques involved in the quilt's creation, while the right page shows a glorious, full-color photo reproduction of the quilt itself. The book's size (11.5 x 9 inches) allows these reproductions to show a great deal of detail, some of which is hard to make out in the actual deck.

Finally, in a move which Pierce says "brought the project full-circle", the photographs were made into an actual deck of cards in 1994.

It's not often that a deck of playing cards comes along which has an effect felt outside of collectors' circles, but for the thousands of people who have seen the exhibit (or the many magazine articles written about it), Sue Pierce's "The Art Quilt - A Full Deck" has redefined just what a deck of cards - and a quilt - can be.

==========[ KENNEDY KARDS ]==========



Description:

Published in 1963 by Humor House, Inc., the court cards in this deck are portrayed by various members of the Kennedy family and their friends.

Due to the tragic ending to John F. and Bobby Kennedy's lives, you rarely see political caricatures of them like these. Seeing them given a light-hearted treatment like this harkens back to what, from today's perspective, seems to be a simpler, more innocent time in the world's past.

The deck contains an extra card which, in light of events to follow, rings rather sadly:

"The royalty of playing cards has variously represented Adam, Julius Caesar, Charlemagne, Helen of Troy, Pallas Athena and others. Our own national leaders and heroes have been occasionally commemorated on face cards.

The Kennedy Kards have been conceived within this tradition and confirm what voters have said in recent elections - we have a new JACK of Hearts.

The White House is now a full house.

Long live the King, the Queen and the Jack!"

==========[ LA TRAVIATA ]==========



Description:

Alfred Dunhill of London is proud to present a unique set of playing cards by the internationally acclaimed artist Erté, based on one of the most romantic operas of all time - Giuseppe Verdi's "La Traviata"

Thus begins the pamphlet accompanying this beautiful, highly-collectible deck, which is sought after by not only collectors of playing-cards, but by opera buffs and lovers of the works of Erté.

The deck, published for Dunhill by Sevenarts in 1982, is an elegant one, with gilt edges and a padded leather box.

Each of the four suits represents a different scene from the opera:

Act I - Hearts
Act II, Scene 1 - Diamonds
Act II, Scene 2 - Clubs
Act III - Spades
On each ace is a symbol of the scene's "theme", the court cards depict major characters, and the pip cards contain silhouetted vignettes, which, when laid out in order, depict the storyline of the entire opera.

Erté even took advantage of the gambling scene in Act II to depict playing-cards on some of the cards (see the King of Clubs), making the deck even more attractive to playing-card collectors!

==========[ LOUIS XV ]==========



Description:

This lovely deck was originally published circa 1890 by the B.P. Grimaud company of Paris, France.

While I've seen the original sell for anywhere from $75 to $125 (depending on the condition of the cards and box), I was lucky enough to find a miniature version in an antique store for considerably less. Grimaud has also published a modern-day reproduction of the deck, allowing a collector with limited funds to own a reasonable facsimile of the original for around $5.

Most copies of the original which I've seen are still in amazingly good condition, with the colors so bright you'd swear it was printed yesterday. I've heard that this is because the deck is so pretty, most people didn't play cards with it, but instead put it away in its box, preserving the deck through the decades.

The deck makes use of a metallic gold (which does not scan well, believe me), and has gilded edges, giving the deck a very luxurious feel.

==========[ ROYAL REVELERS ]==========



Description:

This humorous deck, with its inebriated jacks, queens and kings, was printed in 1932 by the Artists and Writers Guild of St. Paul, Minnesota.

Each of the court cards is sipping their beverage of choice, except the Jack of Spades (not shown in our display), who is smoking what looks suspisciously like a marijuana cigarette!

The deck is actually a piece of American history, as it was published as part of a fund-raising effort towards repealing the Prohibition Ammendment to the Constitution.

My thanks to collector extraordinaire Ben Bornstein for information about the deck.

==========[ UFO ]==========



Description:

Have you ever wondered what kind of playing cards might be used on other planets? Okay, neither have I. But if I had, I would picture something very much like UFO Playing Cards - The Alien Deck.

Published in 1993 by EBE Enterprises of Las Vegas, Nevada ("EBE" is a UFO-buff term for an alien, standing for Extraterrestrial Biological Entity), the court cards in this deck are populated by various large-eyed space aliens.

The courts in the deck stick very close to the standard English/American pattern, having one-eyed Jacks of Hearts and Spades, a one-eyed King of Diamonds, and even a "suicide" King of Hearts!

While the deck uses standard suits, each suit has a different type of UFO represented on the pip cards (See the Ace of Spades below).

A very unusual, but highly playable deck!

==========[ WADDINGTON'S XMAS ]==========



Description:

Published by Waddingtons Fine Playing Cards ("By Appointment to Her Majesty The Queen Manufacturer of Playing Cards"), this deck included an insert card which reads:

"This Collectors Edition has been designed to Celebrate the Festive Season of 1980.

Waddingtons Playing Card Company wish you a Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year."

And so too, do I wish a wonderful holiday season to all visitors here to the Gallery!

Now, if only I could find a Hanukkah deck. And a Kwanza deck. And... oh well, maybe next year.

==========[ WEREWOLF WILD WEST ]==========



Description:

I know what you're saying: "Oh no, not another deck of playing cards where the jacks, queens and kings are werewolves in the Old West of an alternative reality to our own!" But here it is, and a wonderfully conceived deck it is, too.

White Wolf Publishing, Inc., a publisher of Role Playing Games (RPG's), created this dramatic deck as a companion product of sorts to their new game, Werewolf: The Wild West, itself a prequel to their earlier Werewolf: The Apocalypse.

In the world of the games, most of the major heros and villains are werewolves. As such, the duality of their existance (human by day, wolf by night) lends itself quite nicely to being portrayed on the double-ended courts of a deck of playing cards.

Add to this the fact that playing cards are inescapably entwined with our images of the American wild west (was there ever a western film made in which there was no poker scene?), and this deck just seems like a natural outgrowth of the game, and White Wolf is to be commended for recognizing it (they also published the wonderfully dark, award-winning Mage Tarot Deck as a companion product to their Mage: The Ascension game).

Aside from the non-standard courts, the deck also features aces with images I assume to be associated with the people in the courts. As best as I can make out (my one complaint about the deck is its lack of a card or booklet identifying the characters), the suits seem to be: City Folk (Clubs), Frontiersman (Diamonds), Bad Guys (Spades) and Native Americans (Hearts).

Attention was paid here to traditional playing card imagery as well. The jacks of hearts and spades are both one-eyed, as is the king of diamonds. The suicide king is there as well. And the joker is portrayed as a Native American prankster.

With all of this plus the deck's large (4 5/8" by 3 1/8") size, the "aged" look given to the cards' faces, and the elegant box, you have a very collectible deck indeed. Look for it at a game store near you.

...and that's all for this time!

I know that many/most of you on this forum are more interested in modern decks, but I hope seeing some of these will intrigue you enough to perhaps branch out and buy a deck or two that you might not usually consider.

Okay, no replies.

Not interesting?

Too much?

America
Art Quilt
La Traviata
Louis XV
UFO

I like.

Waddington's Xmas - "Sorry. This person moved or deleted this image".

@Collector:

Not sure why that happens occasionally, I did not move it or delete it.

Regardless, I fixed the link, thanks!

...and now it seems to be broke again!

I don't get it!

Haven't been able to be online long enough to both read the new posts and reply to some.

When I was putting up my USPCC history the links at the bottom kept acquiring extra html text so I ended up posting them as regular text instead of links. Try looking under edit to see if there is extra html text being added. I meant to ask admin about that but life has been turbulent lately.

I have the Arts of Pre-Columbian America deck, and the UFO deck, but the seller I got the UFO deck from claimed it was a souvenir of Roswell. The America deck was a gift from a family friend who traveled a lot.

I would love to have the Alien Poker deck with it's bizarre and colourful courts. Haven't found it at an affordable price yet. Also wouldn't mind having the daffy Werewolf Wild West.

Yes, going in and tweaking the HTML (BBCode, actually) is how I fixed it before. I just did so again, though who knows how long it will stay fixed.

dazzleguts wrote:I have the Arts of Pre-Columbian America deck, and the UFO deck, but the seller I got the UFO deck from claimed it was a souvenir of Roswell.

I would not be at all surprised if the deck is sold in Roswell - they will sell anything with an alien on it - but I bought the deck at a casino in Vegas.

I also collect any object with a custom court on it, and I bought t-shirts in Vegas with courts from that deck on them.

I would love to have the Alien Poker deck with it's bizarre and colourful courts. Haven't found it at an affordable price yet. Also wouldn't mind having the daffy Werewolf Wild West.

Yeah, the Alien Poker deck is also of interest to collectors of Pinball-related things, making it a cross-collectible, and so, harder to find. I got mine on eBay in the 90s.

RSLancastr wrote: I also collect any object with a custom court on it, and I bought t-shirts in Vegas with courts from that deck on them.

Would love to have one of those t-shirts, was that in the 90s as well? Searches in google and ebay turned up nothing. Is there any specific name or reference associated with the shirt? Was it for a particular casino?

nOW THAT i THINK MORE ON IT, i RECALL THAT ALTHOUGH i BOUGHT THE DECK IN A CASINO IN vEGAS (tHE eXCALIBUR, i believe (sorry for the caps), I bought the t-shirts at a vendor table at a subsequent convention of 52 Plus Joker. Sorry for the misinformation.

LOVE the Arrco and the Kennedy. Great collection, happy to see more. When is your site up?

Strag wrote:LOVE the Arrco and the Kennedy. Great collection, happy to see more. When is your site up?

I am hoping to have a New & Improved version up and running by the end of the year - thanks for asking!

Here are four more from my collection.

The images and descriptions are from my now-defunct web site "The Bob Lancaster Gallery of Unusual Playing Cards".

==========[ BIG DOGS ]==========

Big Dog Sportswear is well known here in California for its line of products which feature their mascot, a big ol' black and white dog, in a variety of situations (my wife's favorite has him dressed as a Mexican bandito, above the phrase "Leashes?! We don't need no stinking leashes!!").

Recently, they published this deck of playing cards, in which their mascot stands in for the jacks, queens, kings and jokers! With its canine courts, leaping jokers and bright colors, this charming deck has quickly become a favorite of mine.

My favorite decks tend to be those in which the jacks, queens and kings are non-standard, and yet stick close to the conventions of the English/American pack. This deck fits that description very well (the major exception being a two-eyed jack of hearts).

Each of the court cards is a gentle send-up of the equivalent standard English/American card, resulting in a deck that is both very playable and very collectible.

==========[ CARD TRICKS ]==========

No, not a magic deck! The "tricks" in the deck's title are of a different sort altogether...

This deck, published in 1981 by Hit The Deck Enterprises of San Francisco, California, takes a gentle swipe at gay stereotypes.

In it, the kings are macho "Village People" types, the queens are drag queens, and the jacks depict stereotypically "gay professions".

==========[ COCKTAILS ]==========

Although aluminum is the third most common element on earth, it always occurs chemically joined to another metal. Prior to 1886, extracting aluminum from other metals was a costly endeavor, making the refined metal nearly as precious as gold. But it was in that year that a cheap process for such extraction was invented, and suddenly, everyday items started being made out of aluminum which would have been unthinkably expensive before.

Some of these items were actually better suited to the older, more traditional materials, but creating them out of aluminum was a novelty. One such novelty item was aluminum playing cards, decks of which were sold as souvenirs at World's Fairs in the 1890's. The cards were easily bent and scratched, and soon the novelty wore off. Not many aluminum decks were made after that.

This deck, made in the 1920's by Hauserman, was unusual, even for an aluminum deck: Its courts are non-standard, featuring art deco depictions of the rich crowd. Also, it is a "patience-sized" deck, being only 1 5/8" x 2 3/8" (the images have been enlarged here to allow for better viewing).

The box reads "NATURAL ALUMINUM PLAYING CARDS - COCKTAIL SERIES - CHARLES L. KING - NEW YORK, N.Y - Made in Austria".

==========[ CORSAIRES & FLIBUSTIERS ]==========

Holy smokes!

In my previous post, the forum software replaced the common three-letter word for someone who is attracted to people of their own gender (it starts with "G", rhymes with "May") with "BAN WARNING"?!

I had no idea that word was forbidden here, and have no idea why it would be.

Don't worry it isn't a real ban warning.

It is a word replacement, usually on online forums the word 'gay' is used as a slur. We want this forum to remain carefree with as little drama as possible, in order to combat a person getting nasty we replaced two words. The other being the N word.

Don't worry about your post, it was written in good taste and was not offensive.

certainly, the word can be used as a slur. But it is also, in my experience, thought of as a positive term by those within the gay community, as in "gay pride". The only gay person I've known who does NOT like the word is a dear friend of mine who "came" out a few yeas ago at the age of 82, and absolutely hates the word, preferring "homosexual".

So I think that to blacklist the word is silly. If someone uses it as a slur, and someone else reports them, THEN act on it. Redact the word and issue a warning if appropriate. It's a perfectly good word.

M two cents,

-Robert