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Home > Traditional Art > Illustration > 19 Amazing Playing Cards from Around the World

19 Amazing Playing Cards from Around the World

Cards of Life and Death

Images from http://thecontaminated.com/cards-of-life-and-death/


Czech Nationalistic cards by Emanuel Neumann, c.1895

Images from http://www.wopc.co.uk/czech/index.html


Hand painted Dasavatara Ganjifa cards, c. 1950

Images from http://www.wopc.co.uk/india/dasavatara.html


Unsun Karuta

Image from http://www.wopc.co.uk/japan/unsun.html


15th century Italian playing cards

Images from http://www.wopc.co.uk/italy/italia.html



The Book of Trades by Jost Amman, 1588

Images from http://www.wopc.co.uk/germany/ammon.html


Ukraine Human Feature cards

Images from http://photography-arena.blogspot.com/2008/10/ukraine-human-feature-playing-cards.html


Ambras Court Hunting pack

Images from http://www.wopc.co.uk/germany/ambraser.html


Waddington’s Barribal Series, 1933

Images from http://www.wopc.co.uk/waddingtons/barribal.html


‘Unique’ playing cards by Ian Roth

Images from http://www.wopc.co.uk/usa/ianroth.html


Pippoglyph playing cards by Ben Crenshaw, 2004

Images from http://www.wopc.co.uk/usa/pippoglyph.html


Filigree cards by Emily Arkin

Images from http://www.wopc.co.uk/otc/aboutea.html


The Deal

Images from http://www.wopc.co.uk/reviews/thedeal.html


Hanafuda cards

Image from http://adnil.com/CARDS/jong.html


Invisible Playing Cards by Peter Woudt, 2002

Image from http://www.momastore.org/museum/moma/ProductDisplay_Invisible%20Playing%20Cards_10451_10001_15115


Frank Lloyd Wright playing cards by Frank Lloyd Wright

Image from http://www.momastore.org/museum/moma/ProductDisplay_Frank%20Lloyd%20Wright%20Playing%20Cards_10451_10001_15706



Golden Tarot of Klimt

Images from http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/golden-klimt/index.shtml


Aleister Crowley Thoth Tarot

Images from http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/aleister-crowley-thoth/index.shtml


And finally a very strange Chinese deck I picked up, with images of Chinese aristocracy. They also have little educational blurbs on each card, and apparently had a little trouble with the English translations.



This entry was posted on Saturday, December 13th, 2008 at 1:18 pm and is filed under Illustration, Industrial Design, Print design, Recent Posts, Reviews, Traditional Art. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

4 Responses to “19 Amazing Playing Cards from Around the World”

  1. Blogger-artist finds unique playing cards | Ellusionist Magic News says:
    December 14, 2008 at 1:31 pm

    [...] a contributor for the blog Creative Fluff, has found 19 unique decks of playing cards from around the world. Some of the decks are for sale, most of them aren’t. I have no idea [...]

  2. Honour Chick says:
    December 14, 2008 at 10:19 pm

    very confusing cards… but great design either way :)

  3. Aaron Irizarry says:
    December 15, 2008 at 8:16 am

    Wow these are beautiful cards… very cool thanks for the list

  4. Kimberly Beaven says:
    December 15, 2008 at 9:00 am

    Although I really do not get enough time to play cards, I really do love the artistic expression possibilities they present. Very interesting ones to me: Life and Death – great artwork; Invisible Cards – just like the concept; Asian Inspired as I really do love a lot of Asian designs – would love to know what they actually say.

    Good find.