Inuit Art playing cards
Powerful graphic images produced by a group of Inuit printmakers.
Each of the court cards and aces in this pack depicts a work of art from the Inuit community located in Kinngait (Cape Dorset), 1,200 miles north of Toronto, Canada. The cooperatively owned printmaking studios there have been in continual operation since 1959. Several of the cards feature stylised birds, notably owls, alongside walruses and caribou. The cards have a textured finish, similar to an air cushion finish. The two extra cards have a different back design from the rest of the pack. The solid box is attractively decorated on all sides.
Inuit Art playing cards designed by Hilary Thompson. Published by Pomegranate, Portland, Oregon, USA. Printed in China. 52 cards + 2 Jokers + 2 extra cards in hard box. Size: 64 x 89 mm. Date unknown. © Dorset Fine Arts
Collectors of banknotes may spot that the Owl’s Bouquet image by Kenojuak Ashevak on the Queen of Clubs was incorporated into the design for the Bank of Canada’s 2017 ten-dollar bill to commemorate Canada’s 150th Anniversary.
Purchased at the Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge, UK, September 2026. This and other packs available here Pomegranate ►
By Roddy Somerville
France • Member since May 31, 2022
Roddy started collecting stamps on his 8th birthday. In 1977 he joined the newly formed playing-card department at Stanley Gibbons in London before setting up his own business in Edinburgh four years later. His collecting interests include playing cards, postcards, stamps (especially playing cards on stamps) and sugar wrappers. He is a Past President of the Scottish Philatelic Society, a former Chairman of the IPCS, a Past Master of the Worshipful Company of Makers of Playing Cards and Curator of the WCMPC’s collection of playing cards. He lives near Toulouse in France.
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