Old Testament playing cards
Old Testament playing cards with illustrations by Jan Padover, USA, 2012.
Published by Prospero Art in 2012 these cards offer quotes, along with illustrations, many from the old masters of classical art, drawn as pen and ink watercolours by Jan Padover. The aces and court cards present individual characters, such as Abraham, Esther, Saul, and Solomon, while the pip cards show quotations from the different books of the Old Testament, elegantly encircled by a serpent, apple and the tablets of the ten commandments. The jokers are the serpent (from Genesis) and Haman (from Esther), a court official and villain whose plan to destroy the Jews of Persia was thwarted by Esther. There is an extra card listing the books of the Old Testament. See the box►
Above: Old Testament playing cards with illustrations by Jan Padover, published by Prospero Art, USA, 2012.
Note: Jan Padover has created several fine decks of playing cards for Prospero Art including: Shakespeare Quotes, Shakespeare Insults, and Alice in Wonderland►
By Peter Burnett
United Kingdom • Member since July 27, 2022 • Contact
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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