Gulliver’s Travels

Gulliver's Travels is a set of 36 cards comprising nine families of four cards each telling the story of Gulliver's Travels.

The face of each card carries an illustration of a part of the story, and on the back an abridged account of that part of the story. Below the illustration are printed the titles of the four cards comprising that family, the current card's title being printed in contrasting red ink.

The cards can be used for a "Happy Families" game, though the different wording on the backs of each card do allow for a fair amount of cheating!

Above: Gulliver’s Travels card game no.293 published by Piatnik, imported and distributed in UK by Benno Products, 1950s. The over sized cards are housed in a two-part telescopic box. 36 cards + rules in box.

By Matt Probert

Member since March 02, 2012

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I have adored playing cards since before I was seven years old, and was brought up on packs of Waddington's No 1. As a child I was fascinated by the pictures of the court cards.

Over the next fifty years I was seduced by the artwork in Piatnik's packs and became a collector of playing cards.

Seeking more information about various unidentified packs I discovered the World of Playing Cards website and became an enthusiastic contributor researching and documenting different packs of cards.

I describe my self as a playing card archaeologist, using detective work to identify and date obscure packs of cards discovered in old houses, flea markets and car boot sales.