Skyline cards: London edition
Skyline cards: London edition, featuring iconic architecture, United Kingdom, c. 2018.
SStrange as it may seem, this pack was produced by Skyline Chess, a UK company which takes iconic architecture from around the world and re-imagines it as pieces on a chessboard. Indeed, there are already chess sets comprising pieces reflecting the architecture of London, New York, Dubai, San Francisco, Paris and Chicago. See the box►
This pack continues the theme, in two-dimensional form, by showing the silhouette of 13 iconic London landmarks (repeated on each suit) together with a 14th repeated on the two jokers. The landmarks are as follows: Ace – the Shard; 2 - Terraced house; 3 – Trellick Tower; 4 – Lloyds Building; 5 – St. Paul’s Cathedral; 6 – Tate Modern; 7 – Battersea Power Station; 8 – ArcelorMittal Orbit; 9 – London Eye; 10 – Big Ben; Jack – Leadenhall Building; Queen – 30 St Mary Axe; King – Canary Wharf. The jokers show 20 Fenchurch Street, while the card back shows an aerial map of the city.
Above: Skyline cards: London edition, produced by Skyline Chess, United Kingdom, c.2018.
In addition to London, the company has produced similar packs for New York, San Francisco and Paris.
By Peter Burnett
United Kingdom • Member since July 27, 2022 • Contact
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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