Whyte & Mackay Lucky Lions
Whyte & Mackay Lucky Lions playing cards, United Kingdom, 2017
This pack was produced as part of the sponsorship deal between the British & Irish Lions and drinks brand Whyte & Mackay in advance of the Lions’ 2017 rugby tour of New Zealand.
It has elegant, minimalist designs against a black background, with the red suits shown as small black squares within a red oblong, and the black suits shown as black squares within a gold oblong. The cards have red gilt on the edges. A golden lion image adorns the card backs. The deck has 52 suited cards, plus 3 jokers.
Bryan Donaghey, CEO for Whyte & Mackay, commented on the company website “The double lion icon has been part of our brand heritage since the beginning, and that’s just one parallel between the Whyte & Mackay brand and The British & Irish Lions. We are both brilliantly blended – while the Lions take the best rugby players and bring them together for great results, here at Whyte & Mackay, we combine the best single malt and grain whiskies to create our award-winning blended whisky. We can’t wait to join the pride.”
Above: Whyte & Mackay Lucky Lions playing cards, United Kingdom, 2017
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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