Pin-Ups

Above: a playing card featuring the promotional poster for the classic film “You Were Never Lovelier” starring Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth, with music by Jerome Kern and performance by Xavier Cugat and his orchestra.

Come up and see me sometime…” Around the 2^nd World War pin ups were big business, and this carried on post war, into the fifties. No iPhone or social media here: glamorous pictures of the scantily clad would appear in print form, before being ripped out of their respective magazines and pinned in discreet places to be privately adored.

This deck celebrates Hollywood starlets as well as creative illustrations of fictitious ladies, all done in the best possible taste.

Among the real ladies featured here are Elke Sommer, Rita Hayworth, Diana Dors, Jane Russell, Anita Eckberg, Brigitte Bardot, Veronica Lake, Betty Grable and many more. Added to this are some top quality illustrations by top artists of the time: Alberto Vargas, Peter Driben, George petty and Gil Elvgren.

Above: "Pin-Ups" playing cards featuring vibrant vintage illustrations and classic black-and-white photographs that celebrate the iconic pin-up art style.

A double-sided info card by Nicholas Bird delves into the importance of the Pin-up during the war. 15 cards are monochrome photos, whilst the rest are colour snaps or illustrations.

Design and text is by Nicky Bird Design, published by Bird Playing Cards, designed by Haime and Butler, printed by Piatnik. The box sides carry more detail about the deck

The cards are all vertically viewed. The Piatnik number is 1604. The super quality of the cards is everything you would expect from this printer.  The deck is still available from Bird Playing Cards.