Hawaiian Souvenir playing cards
Hawaiian Souvenir playing cards, 1901.
Hawaiian Souvenir playing cards published by Wall, Nichols Co., Ltd. of Honolulu and copyrighted 1901 by the U.S. Playing Card Company. The reverse has a statue of King Kamehameha, surrounded by a gold frame. The Kings and Queens show oval photos of members of the Hawaiian royal dynasty while other cards portray oval photo scenes (with no outline border) of early Hawaii. The Joker shows the seal of Hawaii, consisting of a crown resting above a shield, ornamented with kalo leaves, symbolizing the monarchy. The two male figures on either side of the shield dressed in 'ahu 'ula (feather cloaks) and mahiole (feathered helmets) are the sacred royal twin brothers, Kame'eiamoku and Kamanawa. These two chiefs helped Kamehameha I come to power. Beneath is the motto ‘Ua mau ke ea o ka aina i ka pono meaning “The life of the land is perpetuated by righteousness”.
Above: Hawaiian Souvenir playing cards published by Wall, Nichols Co., Ltd of Honolulu and copyrighted 1901 by the U.S. Playing Card Company. 52 cards + joker in box. Hochman lists it as pack S28 in the Encyclopedia of American Playing cards.
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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