Around the world in 54 cards

Published October 13, 2023 Updated October 13, 2023

“Around the world in 54 cards” hand-coloured transformation pack produced by Peter Wood, United Kingdom, 2008.

2008 United Kingdom Peter Wood Hand-Painted Transformation

This is a full hand-coloured transformation pack produced by Peter Wood in an edition of just 50 copies. The pack described here is no. 3 of 50. Each of the 54 cards represents a different named country and displays, mainly though not exclusively, an appropriately clad teddy bear. So while Russia (five of hearts) is represented by 5 matryoshka dolls, and Easter Island (ten of spades) shows drawings of the moai (carved human figures with oversize heads), the majority present one or more bears either displayed prominently or surreptitiously hidden within a larger image.

“Around the world in 54 cards” hand-coloured transformation pack produced by Peter Wood, United Kingdom, 2008 “Around the world in 54 cards” hand-coloured transformation pack produced by Peter Wood, United Kingdom, 2008 “Around the world in 54 cards” hand-coloured transformation pack produced by Peter Wood, United Kingdom, 2008

Above: “Around the world in 54 cards” hand-coloured transformation pack produced by Peter Wood, United Kingdom, 2008.

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By Peter Burnett

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.

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