History of London illustrated playing cards
A catalogue in 54 cards of some of the treasures held within the Museum of London collections.
Published by the Heritage Playing Card Company in 2009, this is not a typical photographic tourist souvenir of London but rather a catalogue in 54 cards of some of the treasures held within the Museum of London collections. The cards display a broad range of photographs (with titles and detailed descriptions) of treasures, interesting artefacts (some historic, some more mundane), and scenes and stories about daily life in London from the pre-historic era to the present day. Early treasures include a flint hand-axe and roman pavement mosaics, while later artefacts include a policeman’s rattle, a suffrage handbill, Oliver Cromwell’s death mask, and a plague bell. The two jokers show an 1848 wood engraving of “Dirty Father Thames” and an early twentieth century police telephone box.
Above: History of London playing cards published by the Heritage Playing Card Company in 2009.
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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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