Michie Tavern Museum
Historic Michie Tavern Museum playing cards by Brown & Bigelow.
Historic Michie Tavern Museum
Playing cards manufactured by Brown & Bigelow, St Paul, Minnesota, USA.
Above: Brown & Bigelow's most common ace of spades and joker c.1945-1980s but the court card designs (left) were modernised in the 1960s. Images courtesy Matt Probert.
By Matt Probert
Member since March 02, 2012
View ArticlesI have adored playing cards since before I was seven years old, and was brought up on packs of Waddington's No 1. As a child I was fascinated by the pictures of the court cards.
Over the next fifty years I was seduced by the artwork in Piatnik's packs and became a collector of playing cards.
Seeking more information about various unidentified packs I discovered the World of Playing Cards website and became an enthusiastic contributor researching and documenting different packs of cards.
I describe my self as a playing card archaeologist, using detective work to identify and date obscure packs of cards discovered in old houses, flea markets and car boot sales.
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