Simon Wintle
- Spain • Member since February 01, 1996
Founder and editor of the World of Playing Cards since 1996. He is a former committee member of the IPCS and was graphics editor of The Playing-Card journal for many years. He has lived at various times in Chile, England and Wales and is currently living in Extremadura, Spain. Simon's first limited edition pack of playing cards was a replica of a seventeenth century traditional English pack, which he produced from woodblocks and stencils.
Inka Culture
Inka Culture playing cards, Peru, c.2000, promoting alpaca and cotton.
Calendario Inka
“Calendario Inka” playing cards published by Power Casinos, Lima, Peru, c.2004.
Litográfica del Perú
Litográfica del Perú S.A. were manufacturers of playing cards in Peru sometime around the decades of the 1970s and/or 1980s.
Pepsamar advertising playing cards
Anglo-American style advertising playing cards made in Peru by Litográfica del Perú, c.1975, for Sydney Ross S.A. / Winthrop Pepsamar indigestion remedy.
Festal advertising playing cards
Festal advertising playing cards for Hoechst Peruana S.A.
Casinos On The Internet
While card rooms and private gaming clubs may have been around for hundreds of years, the earliest known European casino of the type gamblers know today is probably the Casino at Monte Carlo.
Naipes ‘Baccarat’
An example of the typical version of the Spanish Catalan pattern which is widely used in South American countries, especially Argentina, Chile and Uruguay.
Cartográfica Industrial, Curitiba, Brazil
Double advertising pack made by Cartográfica Industrial for Refrigeração Parana S.A. The extra card contains an insignia with the legend 'CARTAL'.
Vale Tudo - Cartas para Jogar
Vale Tudo - Cartas para Jogar, manufactured in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The courts are standard English pattern with prominent indices, printed in red and black only.
Western PCC
The Western Playing Card Company was formed in 1927. The exact history and origins are not clear.
Congress No.606
Congress Playing Cards were first produced by the Russell & Morgan Company in 1881 as the finest and most expensive of their brands.
Bicycle No.808 - page 2
The famous 'Bicycle' playing cards were first introduced by Russell & Morgan Printing Co in 1885. They were hugely successful and became the most well-known brand in the world.
Bicycle Seconds
Bicycle 808 Seconds playing cards manufactured by The United States Playing Card Co, Cincinnati and New York, USA, with offices also in Windsor, Canada and London, England.
Illuminated Playing Cards, c.1865
Facsimile edition of Andrew Dougherty's Illuminated deck, c.1865, published by U.S. Games Systems, Inc., and described as 'Civil War Illuminated Poker Deck'
Anonymous Novelty Cards
Miniature novelty playing cards from the late 1940s or early 1950s with a charm of their own. Probably published as small prizes at fairground or seaside amusement arcades.
Bicycle No.808
The famous Bicycle playing cards were first introduced by Russell & Morgan Printing Co in 1885. More recently the brand has been open to private designers since the early 2000s.
Jumbo Bridge 88
Cards with jumbo indices were introduced in 1895, and were given the subtitle '88'.
Standard Genoese
Van Genechten manufactured playing cards in various styles, including specially customised versions for commercial clients wishing to advertise their own brands on the cards.
Mesmaekers & Moentack, c.1860
The Mesmaekers firm had been established in Turnhout in 1859 by the partnership of Gustaaf Mesmaekers and Louis-François Moentack.
Brotherton, 1789-1840
Brotherton is recorded as operating at 13 Little Britain (London) from 1789-1840. In 1851 his factory was burnt down.
Alphonse Arnoult
Finely engraved deck by Alphonse Arnoult (Paris), c.1860. 52 cards.
Historic Boston and Vicinity
Historic Boston and Vicinity Souvenir Playing Cards, 1900 & 1909.
The United States Playing Card Company
Over the years the pressures of competition and other market forces have led to many smaller manufacturers being taken over by larger ones. The outcome is that the U.S.P.C.C. is now the largest manufacturer in the United States.
Hardy
The Hardy family of playing card manufacturers began with Henry Hardy (1784-89) and continued through to Hardy & Sons who finally closed down in c.1840.
National Card Co.
The National Card Co. was formed in c.1886 by Samuel J Murray, who as a young man had worked in England in Charles Goodall's playing card factory.
Lawrence & Cohen
Lawrence & Cohen were successors to Lawrence, Cohen & Co.
Royal Playing Cards, 1890s
Royal Playing Cards, 1890s
Lewis I. Cohen
Lewis I. Cohen made his first deck of cards in 1832. In 1835 Mr Cohen invented a new machine to print four colours on a sheet at once, which was to revolutionise the entire playing card industry.
New York Consolidated Card Company
The New York Consolidated Card Company was formed in 1871 by the merging of Lawrence & Cohen, Samuel Hart & Co and John J. Levy.
Continental Card Co
The Continental Card Company, 220 North Second Street, Philadelphia, started in 1874, manufacturing various qualities of playing cards, including Continental Steamboats, Manhattans, Continental Moguls, etc. Single-ended and double-ended decks are known, also a "Highest Trump" Joker.
Strauss & Trier, c.1860
Strauss & Trier, New York, c.1860.
Samuel Hart, 1846-1871
Samuel Hart was a prolific manufacturer of playing cards who commenced business sometime around 1845 in Philadelphia. He had previously worked for L.I. Cohen.
Andrew Dougherty 1848-1930
Andrew Dougherty was born in Donegal in Northern Ireland in 1827. He started his playing card business in New York in 1848.
Thomas Crehore copy, c.1850
Thomas Crehore copy, c.1850.
Squeezers No.35
By 1877 the New York Consolidated Card Co's "Squeezers" were a great success on account of the indices in the corners which enabled the cards to be fanned.
Cerveza ‘El Gallo’
Advertising pack for Cerveza ‘El Gallo’ made in Belgium, c.1880.
S. Giráldez, Barcelona
Standard Spanish Catalan pattern playing cards by S. Giráldez, Barcelona, c.1905.
E. P. Franco
E. P. Franco, Naipes ‘El Brujo’, c.1953.
Mario Colombo
Naipes "OBELISCO" by Mario Colombo, Rodriguez Peña 385, Buenos Aires (Argentina), c.1950.
Eduardo Antonio Chemmes
Playing cards published by E. A. Chemmes, Buenos Aires during the early 1950s. The cards were probably printed by Ernesto Flaiban.
Baraja de Amor
Hijos de José Garcia Taboadela was a book-seller who also published this charming pack of lovers' fortune telling cards in 1871.
Naipes Condor
"Naipes Condor" Chilean playing cards, with Chilean symbolism on the suit signs.
The 72 Names Cards
The 72 Names Cards based on the Kabbalistic "72 Names of God" and the metaphysical artwork of Orna Ben-Shoshan, Raanana, Israel.
Peru Rail
Peru Rail souvenir cards "exploring the land of the Incas" published by Peru Rail, Cusco, c.2005.
Las Cartas de Sara
Las Cartas de Sara (Yerba Mate) based on an idea by Diego Silva Pintos and illustrated by Hogue. Produced by Color/9, c.2003.
Chocolondo by Famosa
Chocolondo Waffle deck for Famosa.
Jaques’ Happy Families
In 1851 the games manufacturer John Jaques of London (founded in 1795) commissioned a set of drawings from John Tenniel, later Sir John, the chief cartoonist of Punch, for their new game of Happy Families.
Happy Families
Happy Families is probably one of the most popular card games ever invented, with educational benefits relating to sorting and matching of sets, as well as early literacy and elementary genealogy, flowers or bird identification, etc.
Vic Joc de Cartes
Vic Joc de Cartes, happy families quartet game, 1990.
Anonymous manufacturers 1
Argentina has produced a series of anonymous decks, both Spanish-suited and Anglo-American type and children's games.
Vistas del Perú, c.1920s
Vistas del Perú souvenir deck, made in USA and imported by Edw. E. Muecke, Lima, Peru, c.1920s.