Seiko fashion cards
Men's and ladies fashion playing cards published for the Seiko Corporation by Nintendo, Japan, 1971.
When one thinks of Seiko one immediately thinks of high-quality wrist watches, clocks and electronic devices. However, this pack, published by Nintendo in 1971, should not be confused with Seiko watches (which began in 1881). The pack was published for the Seiko Corporation (established in 1950) for planning, manufacturing and sales of men's and ladies cut & sewn products, and rather than celebrating watches, the court cards and the two identical jokers display colourful examples of men and women’s fashion clothing. With the exception of a special ace of spades, the remaining aces and pip cards are standard.
Above: Seiko fashion cards published by Nintendo, Japan, 1971.
By Peter Burnett
Member since July 27, 2022
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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