Cryptic Cards

Published December 02, 2022 • Updated December 03, 2022

Cryptic cards created by Immy Smith, United Kingdom, 2017

The Cryptic Cards pack was created by Immy Smith, an interdisciplinary artist interested in crypsis – that’s the ability of animals (and some plants) to avoid detection thanks to camouflage, mimicry, and other evolutionary strategies. The pack was produced in a limited edition of 900, and is a “sciart” project paying homage to the amazing cryptic camouflage found specifically in moths. The publication of the pack was successfully crowdfunded via Kickstarter and printed by Cartamundi UK. According to the information on the original Kickstarter site: “What would happen if, after thousands of years of evolution, moths developed cryptic patterns to camouflage themselves on human-made materials? Cryptic Cards is a year-long project in which artist Immy Smith is painting moths camouflaged into playing card designs as one answer to this question”. The pack consists of 56 cards, including 4 jokers, together with 2 of Immy Smith’s business cards.

Above: Cryptic Cards created by Immy Smith and crowdfunded on Kickstarter, 2017. 56 cards + 4 jokers.

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By Peter Burnett

United Kingdom • 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.

• Russian Playing Cards

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.