Alice in Wonderland by Dominic Murphy
Alice in Wonderland playing cards produced by Dominic Murphy.
This 54-card pack was produced by Dominic Murphy in both standard and patience-size. The latter is illustrated here. The artist has created his own artwork to illustrate the works by Lewis Carroll rather the use the original Tenniel drawings. He describes his work as figurative and imagined and subjects that occur frequently in his work are Alice in Wonderland, Tarot, fantasy and surrealism.
On Alice in Wonderland he asks: “Is it the Dreamlike quality? The Madness? The Englishness? The Class structure? The profound questions? The Drink or the mushrooms? Could it be the risk of losing one's head? Or the fact that no-one is particularly agreeable in Wonderland? Could it be the Dodo? Or the ability to change one's size and perspective? Could it be the Victorian influence? Surely it's the playing cards painting the roses red? More likely it's the fact that these things barely scratch the surface of the wealth of inspiration to be found in Lewis Carroll's classic” • Dominic Murphy Art►
Above: Alice in Wonderland playing cards produced by Dominic Murphy. Date and manufacturer unknown.
By Peter Burnett
United Kingdom • Member since July 27, 2022 • Contact
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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