The Winning Hand
The Winning Hand playing cards with artwork from multiple artists, United Kingdom, 1993.
This special edition 54-card pack, published in 1993, is “made up of the winning designs submitted by students from over 250 art schools and colleges from around the UK who entered the Winning Hand design competition, jointly sponsored by the Victoria and Albert Museum and Virgin Atlantic Airways”. (From the accompanying information card which is signed by the respective institutional directors: Elizabeth Esteve-Coll and Richard Branson). The cards are colourful and attractive, but unfortunately the chosen artists/designers are not named. See the box►
Above: The Winning Hand playing cards with artwork from multiple artists, sponsored by the Victoria and Albert Museum and Virgin Atlantic Airways, United Kingdom, 1993.
Endnote
A 2-page article in Playing-Card World, No. 72, May 1993, pp 26-7 (almost certainly by John Berry, though not signed), mentions the prizewinners and also the fact that Elaine Lewis contributed the 7 of Hearts. Furthermore, all the artists were asked to submit original work not offered or used elsewhere. Unfortunately, it was discovered that one artist had disobeyed this instruction so the decision was taken to withdraw the pack from sale after a short period of time. I'm not sure whether it was ever re-issued with a different card in place of the offending one - Roddy Somerville.
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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