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Published July 07, 2014 Updated July 11, 2023

Breedon Press Ltd

Playing cards advertising Sunspel underwear printed by the Breedon Press Ltd, Nottingham, c.1950

United Kingdom Breedon Press Ltd Advertising Add to Collection

Breedon Press Ltd, Nottingham, c.1958

Playing cards advertising ‘Sunspel Underwear for Men’ printed by the Breedon Press Ltd, Nottingham, c.1958

Sunspel underwear was made in Nottingham from 1860 onwards and it is still in production. The trade name, Sunspel, was used from 1936, and the factory was situated in Long Eaton, Nottinghamshire, for a considerable period of time. Breedon Press must have been a local printer, who produced a high quality imprint, but it is difficult to get any information about the firm. The design of the playing cards is idiosyncratic and not based on anyone else's.

playing cards advertising Sunspel underwear printed by the Breedon Press Ltd, Nottingham, c.1958

Above: playing cards advertising Sunspel underwear printed by the Breedon Press Ltd, Nottingham, c.1958. 52 cards + Joker. The registration dates of the Ace of Spades & joker are believed to show that the pack dates from 1958.

REFERENCES & CREDITS

E.P.C.S., Newsletter: An Interesting Discovery, Vol.6 No.24 May 1989 p.32

Lodge, Ken: The Standard English Pattern (second revised and enlarged edition), Bungay, Suffolk, 2010

Images and text kindly supplied by Ken Lodge.

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By Simon Wintle

Member since February 01, 1996

Founder and editor of the World of Playing Cards since 1996. He is a former committee member of the IPCS and was graphics editor of The Playing-Card journal for many years. He has lived at various times in Chile, England and Wales and is currently living in Extremadura, Spain. Simon's first limited edition pack of playing cards was a replica of a seventeenth century traditional English pack, which he produced from woodblocks and stencils.


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