Back to Country
Advertising playing cards for a Japanese fashion house, with reversed colours.
There are two striking features about this pack. The first is the size – the cards are elongated, although Nintendo made cards in this format on a number of occasions. The second is that all the indices and suit-signs are left in white – on a red background for the red suits, and a black background for the black suits. The central motif on all the court cards and Jokers is a keyhole, Drawings of various personalities can be spied through the keyhole, e.g., Lincoln, J.F. Kennedy, Chairman Mao, Frank Sinatra, Sophia Loren, Marilyn Monroe, and Frankenstein. The back design features the door of the “Country Club” in brown. See the box►
Above: Back to Country playing cards made by Nintendo P.C. Co. Ltd, Kyoto, Japan, c1979, for Van Jacket Inc. 52 cards + 2 Jokers in cardboard sleeve. Size: 63 x 107.5 mm.
By Roddy Somerville
Member since May 31, 2022
Roddy started collecting stamps on his 8th birthday. In 1977 he joined the newly formed playing-card department at Stanley Gibbons in London before setting up his own business in Edinburgh four years later. His collecting interests include playing cards, postcards, stamps (especially playing cards on stamps) and sugar wrappers. He is a Past President of the Scottish Philatelic Society, a former Chairman of the IPCS, a Past Master of the Worshipful Company of Makers of Playing Cards and Curator of the WCMPC’s collection of playing cards. He lives near Toulouse in France.
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