Bicycle Ancient Machine playing cards

Published June 13, 2023 • Updated June 13, 2023

Bicycle Ancient Machine playing cards designed by concept artist Juniardi Satyanagara, USA, 2015.

This “Ancient Machine” pack was published in 2015 via Kickstarter by Collectable Playing Cards, and printed by the United States Playing Card Company in a limited run of 4000 numbered packs. The cards were designed by the concept artist and illustrator Juniardi Satyanagara.

All the cards have a grey stone effect background. Each court card comes uniquely designed with robotic-like shapes, each holding fearsome gadgets and weapons. The pips are displayed directly in the centre of the card and have a very rock-solid 3D design that catches the eye rather quickly. And the colours are very angular and firm which plays well with the concept of the pack. See the box►

The back design is, in the view of the designer, “a symbol of the deck. It’s as if it were a flag for the future of warfare. Again, very solid and strong dark golds and silvers”. There are two clockwork robotic jokers, and a gaff card.

Bicycle Ancient Machine playing cards designed by concept artist and illustrator Juniardi Satyanagara., USA, 2015

Above: Bicycle “Ancient Machine” playing cards designed by concept artist and illustrator Juniardi Satyanagara and printed by the United States Playing Card Company, 2015.

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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.