What can we learn from mini-booklet advertisements?
Over the years I have collected a large number of mini-booklets and pocket guides offering rules and play guidance on a wide variety of games.
By Tony Hall
Member since January 30, 2015
I started my interest in card games about 70 years ago, playing cribbage with my grandfather. Collecting card game materials started 50 years or so later, when time permitted. One cribbage board was a memory; two became the start of a collection currently exceeding 150!
Once interest in the social history of card games was sparked, I bought a wooden whist marker from the 1880s which was ingenious in design and unbelievably tactile. One lead to two and there was no stopping.
What happened thereafter is reflected in my articles and downloads on this site, for which I will be eternally grateful.
Related Articles
AKA M5 Motorway
Promotional playing cards for the Hungarian M5 Toll Motorway between Budapest and Röszk.
Pathé Marconi
Special promotion pack for French record company Pathé Marconi.
ViVa Bourg
A distinctive deck of cards for a specific promotion.
Dancing
“Dancing” playing cards manufactured by Nintendo for Torii Dance School, Osaka.
Agent Provocateur
Branded lingerie collection in a pack of pin-up playing cards.
Shin-Tōmei Expressway Opening Commemoration
Promotional playing cards for the Shin-Tōmei Expressway, a major Japanese expressway that opened in ...
Copechat Paramount Sorting System
Preserving the past: a specimen deck showcasing edge-notched cards and their ingenious sorting syste...
Heartsette by Herbert Fitch & Co, 1893
A glimpse into a busy print and design office in late Victorian London.
Intersigma
A Czech advertising deck for a company dealing with pump technology.
IG Chemie Papier Keramik
Promotional pack designed by Karl-Heinz Schroers for a German trade union with comical bears on the ...
More Menthol Filter Cigarettes
Elongated cards with designs by Wong Yui Man advertising More cigarettes.
Jockey Club de Buenos Aires
Spanish-suited pack by Chas Goodall & Son Ltd for the Jockey Club, Buenos Aires.
New interest in old games
Games once fashionable are now eclipsed by quicker gratifications.
Leadmill playing cards
Promotional pack for an arts centre in Sheffield with designs by Martin F. Bedford.
Simpson (Piccadilly) playing cards
Innovative advertising pack for Simpsons of Piccadilly designed by André François.
Hamlet Cigars
Advertising deck for “Hamlet mild cigars”, a Benson & Hedges product.
Most Popular
Our top articles from the past 28 days
