Cleveland Museum of Art artists card game

Published March 03, 2023 • Updated March 17, 2023

Cleveland Museum of Art artists card game, USA, c.1993.

This informative art pack was made by Carta Mundi and published by US Games Systems Inc., c. 1993 for the Cleveland Museum of Art. It features 52 full-colour reproductions of a selection of the Museum’s major works. Unfortunately, the reproductions are not as large and therefore not as detailed as they would be if they occupied most of the card face. The reason for the relatively small size is that the pack is designed to be both suitable for all card games and as a quartet deck. Each set of 4 playing cards (i.e., the 4 Aces, the 4 Kings, etc.) are a “quartet” for purposes of the card game, and each card depicts a work of art taken from the Museum collection. Each card gives the name and artist of the work depicted and also gives the names and artists of the other three works in its “quartet.” Along one side of each card information about the particular work depicted is given in very fine print, and along the other side a different artistic period or school of art are displayed. See the box►

Cleveland Museum of Art artists card game published by US Games Systems Inc., c. 1993

Above: Cleveland Museum of Art artists card game published by US Games Systems Inc., c. 1993. The deck comprises 52 suited cards: 13 quartets of 4 cards each; there are no jokers. There are three additional cards: rules for the Artists card game and two promotional cards.

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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.

• Russian Playing Cards

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.