Stars of Country Music
Stars of Country Music playing cards with non-standard suit symbols, USA, 1995
This pack was manufactured by Hoyle Products, St. Paul, Minnesota under the authority of Winterland Productions, (a merchandising and licensing company in the pop culture industry). The court cards show photographs of some of the stars of American country music. However, this is not a simple pictorial pack. Additionally, the standard suit signs have been replaced with suit symbols which are closely associated with this genre of music: Stetson hats, stars, guitars and cowboy boots. The two jokers similarly emphasise the ubiquitous cowboy boot. See the box►
Above: Stars of Country Music playing cards manufactured by Hoyle Products, USA, 1995.
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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