Oxford Gargoyles
Oxford Gargoyles souvenir playing cards published by Chris Donaghue Photography, Oxford, UK.
Gargoyles and grotesques are a much-loved component of Oxford’s rich architectural heritage. They embody what Philip Pullman has described as “a long and proud tradition of rudeness, mischief and disobedience”. This pack, published by Chris Donaghue Photography, Oxford, reproduces 52 gargoyles and grotesques from both the colleges and the University buildings.
A gargoyle is essentially a decorative water spout or drainpipe intended to prevent rainwater from running down the face of a wall and causing damage. Grotesques, named for the exaggeration of expression in the carving, are intended simply to decorate. These cards show both categories.
Some of the characters they depict are mythic; some are based on real people. The oldest date back to the thirteenth century (Balliol College, 1263) and early fourteenth century (Exeter College, 1314; Oriel College, 1326) and the tradition of creating and adding new gargoyles continues to the present day. For example, in 2009 nine gargoyles designed by schoolchildren to celebrate Oxford’s cultural past and present were installed on the north-west face of the Bodleian Library – one of which was Sir Thomas Bodley, the library’s founder, and another was J.R.R. Tolkien. See the box►
Above: Oxford Gargoyles souvenir playing cards published by Chris Donaghue Photography, Oxford, UK.
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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