Irish Legendary
Irish Legendary deck featuring figures in the Legends of Ireland, designed by Rachel Arbuckle, 1990.
Irish Legendary playing cards featuring figures in the Legends of Ireland, designed by Rachel Arbuckle, 1990. The four suits represent the four provinces of Ireland and the Shield of each Province is illustrated on the Ace of each suit. The picture cards feature the Kings, Queens and Warriors of the province as in the Celtic legends. The Gaelic terms for these are used on the cards: Ri for King, Bean for the principal woman of the Province and Laoch for the Chief Warrior. The Gaelic Bard takes the place of the traditional Joker. Further details on the extra cards►



Above: Irish Legendary playing cards designed by Rachel Arbuckle, 1990.

By Rex Pitts (1940-2021)
Member since January 30, 2009
View ArticlesRex'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.