Waddingtons Nursery Rhymes
Nursery rhyme playing cards by Waddingtons, Leeds, UK, 1975.
waddingtons Nursery Rhyme cards were no doubt intended for children to play a Happy Families or quartet type of game; however, they also include the traditional markings of a suited pack. Each nursery rhyme consists of four cards, say the 4 Kings, three being pictorial and one having the text of the rhyme. Thus, there are 13 rhymes in all. The designer/artist is not credited. One curious feature is that the typeface used for the “A” on the Ace of Spades is different from the other three Aces. The pack appears to have been issued in two versions, one in a large pink drop-lid box with rules printed on the bottom of the box, and the other in a clear plastic box with a paper leaflet containing the rules. Neither version has any Jokers or extra cards.
Above: Nursery Rhyme playing cards by Waddingtons Playing Card Co. Ltd, Leeds, UK, 1975. 52 cards (see text for details of boxes, leaflet, etc.). Size: 58 x 88 mm. Right: the back.
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.
Activity for Waddingtons Nursery Rhymes
Sign in to comment or save this article.
Related Articles
Learning to play Cribbage
I learned to pay cribbage when I was very young, aged around six or seven.
Christmas 1980 playing cards
Festive courts on a Waddingtons pack designed to celebrate Christmas 1980.
Hollywood Greats playing cards
18 stars in black and white from the Golden Age of Hollywood.
Radio Banker
Radio Banker by John Waddington Ltd for Marconiphone Co Ltd.
Beaver!
The Game of Beaver designed by G E Studdy and published by John Waddington Ltd in 1927.
My Word
My Word “The last word in card games” designed by Michael Kindred and Malcolm Smith, published in 19...
Crown the Queen
Crown the Queen card game invented by Elaine Burton, c.1953.
Fairy Tales
Fairy Tales published by C.W. Faulkner & Co., c.1903.
Pooltella
Pooltella cards by John Waddington Ltd, the cards that simplify football pool forecasts, 1930s.
Fairy Tales
the Game of Fairy Tales published by Multum in Parvo Co,, from 1896
Bobs y’r Uncle
“Bobs y'r Uncle” nursery rhyme card game designed by Frank H. Simpson for John Waddington Ltd. in 19...
Cheers & Tears
Cheers & Tears by John Waddington Ltd, 1963.
Drownin’ Surfer
Drownin’ Surfer card game
District Messenger
District Messengers were uniformed young men wearing little pill-box hats and mounted on bicycles wh...
Happy Families
Happy Families designed by A.E. Kennedy, 1930s.
The New Game of Animals
Victorian card game with imaginatively designed letters which spell the name of an animal, with one ...
Waddy Productions
Waddy Productions Ltd was a member of the giant Amalgamated Press group and only published card game...
John Waddington Ltd, early type
John Waddington Ltd, early type Ace of Spades and court cards, 1922-30.
Waddington’s “Envoy“ Series
Waddington’s “Envoy“ Series.
Waddington’s Old Master Series, 1933
Waddington’s Old Master Series, 1933
Most Popular
Our top articles from the past 60 days
