Dickens Character Collection
Dickens Character Collection published for a London Casino as a promotional gift.
This pack consists of 52 cards, 1 joker and a card with Dickens’ biographical information serving as a second joker. Unfortunately, no publisher or date is given, but it was published by the seller for a London Casino as a promotional gift. All the court cards plus the Joker have a different character from Dickens' works.
Above: Dickens Character Collection playing cards, unknown publisher or date. 52 cards + joker + extra card.
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.
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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