California souvenir playing cards
California souvenir playing cards, USA, 1898 and 1907.
Published by R.J. Waters in 1898, each card presents oval photographic views of California. The reverse of the cards has the California State Seal on a grey background surrounded by orange poppies with brown centres. Above the seal are the words “STATE FLOWER” and below it is “CALIFORNIA POPPY”
Above: California souvenir playing cards published by R.J. Waters, 110 Sutter St, San Francisco in 1898.
See: Hochman Encyclopedia of American playing Cards, p. 255 no. S12.
A similar pack of California souvenir playing cards was published in 1907 by M. Rieder (probably the successor to Waters). In this edition the indices are in a heavier typeface and the oval photographs are surrounded by a border. The reverse is almost identical to the earlier pack except the poppies do not have the brown centres. In addition, the photo scenes on the cards are different.
See: Hochman Encyclopedia of American Playing cards, p. 255 no. S13.
Above: California souvenir playing cards published by M. Rieder in 1907 (probably the successor to Waters).
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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