John Sands

Posted by Simon Wintle • February 02, 2015 at 11:06am

Country of Origin: Australia Keywords: sands hudson valentines mcdougall

John Sands had incorporated the earlier playing card manufacturing businesses of Hudson Industries Pty Ltd in 1972 and Valentine Publishing Co in 1989. John Sands was bought by American Greetings in 1996, and it is presumed the playing card business closed sometime around then. Their main line now is greeting cards.

Above: John Sands aces of spades following from Hudson / Valentines. Dunlop advertising pack, 1993. King of spades from publicity brochure. John Sands courts, as per Hudson/Valentine with purple added, in Jumbo index and normal sizes. Adelaide Casino pack, 1992.

Above: special joker for Batman deck (1989) and Koala / Kangaroo picture backs by Steve Parish, a wildlife photographer (who later published his own decks printed in China). His Sands decks have the ‘anon’ ace of spades shown above.

Advertising Brochure

Above: brochure that's in the shape of a large greeting card, about 160 x 255mm, and opens up like a card. The Sands contact info has been added on top of the name of Valentine Greetings (which can be read underneath), so dates from the time Sands took over Valentine, c.1989.

Below: the back of the brochure, showing cards from the Valentines era.