Cathedrals, Abbeys & Minsters playing cards
54 pictures of different famous cathedrals, abbeys and minsters in England and Wales.
This pack, produced by the Heritage Playing Card Company in 2018, presents 54 pictures of different famous cathedrals, abbeys and minsters. The majority of those represented are located in England, though six Welsh cathedrals are also included. No information is provided other than the name of each edifice above the photograph, with the location shown below. The back of each card depicts the coat-of-arms of the Archbishop of Westminster and the Archbishop of York. There are two jokers: one shows the bells of St. Paul’s Cathedral and the other the pipe organ of Liverpool Anglican Cathedral. Completing the pack is an extra card advertising the Heritage Playing Card Company • See the box
Above: Cathedrals, Abbeys & Minsters playing cards produced by the Heritage Playing Card Company in 2018.
By Peter Burnett
Member since July 27, 2022
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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