Transformation Playing Cards, 1811

Transformation Playing Cards, 1811

Above: Transformation playing cards, first published in 1811, in which each card bears a picture in which the suit marks are concealed within the design. This artistic exercise began as an 18th century parlour game and became a popular pastime during the Victorian era when ordinary playing cards would be illustrated in pen and paint. Cards from the facsimile edition courtesy Giles de Margary.

A new facsimile is published by the EPCS.

A rough but lively study of a group of men in hats playing cards by Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851), 1819.

Source: www.tate.org.uk/.../turner-sketches-at-genzano-including-notes-on-local-costume-and-a-group-of-men-playing-d15465►

By Simon Wintle

Member since February 01, 1996

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Curator 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.