Het Nest Brouwerij
Het Nest Brouwerij playing cards from Turnhout, Belgium.
The Het Nest brewery began life in 2000 as a beer-tasting society, and over the years since it has become a recognised craft beer brewery. The co-owner and president of Het Nest, Bart Cuypers, is from Oud-Turnhout and since he and his partners live and brew in Turnhout, near the headquarters of Cartamundi, they decided to acknowledge one of the town’s main industries by naming their brews after playing cards: their first commercial brew was Schuppenboer (Jack of Spades), followed by Hertenheer (King of Hearts), then Schuppenaas (Ace of Spades), Kleveretien (Ten of Clubs), and finally Koekendam (Queen of Diamonds) to complete their main line of beers. See their website for illustrations.
A first cursory glance at the cards gives the impression that this is a standard Cartamundi pack. But look closely and you’ll see the court cards are all holding a glass of beer (same in each suit), and the aces have an enlarged decorative suit symbol. For some reason, presumably related to the Kleveretien brew, the ten of clubs is not a sold black but a more ornate design. The pip cards in the suits are otherwise all standard. There are two standard Cartamundi jokers. See the box►
Above: Het Nest Brouwerij playing cards manufactured by Cartamundi, Belgium.
By Peter Burnett
United Kingdom • Member since July 27, 2022 • Contact
I graduated in Russian and East European Studies from Birmingham University in 1969. It was as an undergraduate in Moscow in 1968 that I stumbled upon my first 3 packs of “unusual” playing cards which fired my curiosity and thence my life-long interest. I began researching and collecting cards in the early 1970s, since when I’ve acquired over 3,330 packs of non-standard cards, mainly from North America, UK and Western Europe, and of course from Russia and the former communist countries.
Following my retirement from the Bodleian Library in Dec. 2007 I took up a new role as Head of Library Development at the International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP) to support library development in low-income countries. This work necessitated regular training visits to many sub-Saharan African countries and also further afield, to Vietnam, Nepal and Bangladesh – all of which provided rich opportunities to further expand my playing card collection.
Since 2019 I’ve been working part-time in the Bodleian Library where I’ve been cataloguing the bequest of the late Donald Welsh, founder of the English Playing Card Society.
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