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Irish Historic

Published September 14, 2014 Updated April 26, 2022

Irish Historic Playing Cards celebrating history and art, 1920.

1920 Ireland Irish Playing Card Mfg Co W & G Baird Ltd Celtic Ethnic & Indigenous Historic

Irish Historic Playing Cards, 1920

published by W & G Baird Ltd, Belfast and printed by the Irish Playing Card Mfg Co., Cork, 1920-30.
Irish Historic Playing Cards published by W & G Baird Ltd box from Irish Historic Playing Cards published by W & G Baird Ltd

Above: Irish Historic Playing Cards published by W & G Baird Ltd, stationers in Belfast, 1920. The Kings and Queens depict Irish historical royalty. The Jacks are harpers. The backs show typical Celtic decorative artwork. The cards were printed by the Irish Playing Card Mfg Co., Cork, 1920-30.

See also:  Irish ‘Heroic’ packCeltic Mythology playing cards

References: Goodall, Michael H.: "The Fennell series of Irish Heroic & Historic Playing Cards" in The Playing-Card, Journal of the IPCS, Vol.37, No.3, 2009, pp.169-175.

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By Rex Pitts (1940-2021)

Member since January 30, 2009

Rex's main interest was in card games, because, he said, they were cheap and easy to get hold of in his early days of collecting. He is well known for his extensive knowledge of Pepys games and his book is on the bookshelves of many.

His other interest was non-standard playing cards. He also had collections of sheet music, music CDs, models of London buses, London Transport timetables and maps and other objects that intrigued him.

Rex had a chequered career at school. He was expelled twice, on one occasion for smoking! Despite this he trained as a radio engineer and worked for the BBC in the World Service.

Later he moved into sales and worked for a firm that made all kinds of packaging, a job he enjoyed until his retirement. He became an expert on boxes and would always investigate those that held his cards. He could always recognize a box made for Pepys, which were the same as those of Alf Cooke’s Universal Playing Card Company, who printed the card games. This interest changed into an ability to make and mend boxes, which he did with great dexterity. He loved this kind of handicraft work.

His dexterity of hand and eye soon led to his making card games of his own design. He spent hours and hours carefully cutting them out and colouring them by hand.

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