Axminster 100 playing cards
Special non-standard pack produced for Axminster Carpets Ltd.
A rather unusual pack of advertising cards produced for Axminster Carpets Ltd by Games & Print Services, Canvey Island, UK in c.1998. The court cards all display pictures of sheep breeds and the four special aces advertise Axminster 100. The “100” presumably means 100% wool, as mentioned on the extra card. According to the box, the King sheep is William and the Queen sheep is Mary. See the box►
Above: Axminster 100 playing cards produced for Axminster Carpets Ltd by Games & Print Services, Canvey Island, UK, 1998. The cards have a linen finish. The deck has 52 cards, all with 4 -corner indices, plus 2 Jokers, and an extra card describing how to buy additional decks. The cards are slightly long bridge size, measuring 91mm x 59mm.
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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