Music playing cards
Portraits of 13 classical music composers.
All the classical music composers depicted in this pack were working in the 18th and 19th centuries. The images come from German and Austrian museums and a London film library. The designs are repeated on the same card in each suit. In the double pack, there are two identical jokers in one pack, with one of these plus a different one in the second pack. The more colourful backs – in the Piatnik style – show a violin and bow on one and a piano keyboard on the other, each with sheet music and roses completing the picture.



Above: Music playing cards published by Ivory Tower Publishing Co., Inc., Watertown, MA, USA, 1994. Printed by Carta Mundi, Turnhout, Belgium. 2 x 52 cards + 2 Jokers + 2 extra cards in clear plastic box. Size: 56 x 87 mm. © 1994 Ivory Tower Publishing Co., Inc.

By Roddy Somerville
Member since May 31, 2022
Roddy started collecting stamps on his 8th birthday. In 1977 he joined the newly formed playing-card department at Stanley Gibbons in London before setting up his own business in Edinburgh four years later. His collecting interests include playing cards, postcards, stamps (especially playing cards on stamps) and sugar wrappers. He is a Past President of the Scottish Philatelic Society, a former Chairman of the IPCS, a Past Master of the Worshipful Company of Makers of Playing Cards and Curator of the WCMPC’s collection of playing cards. He lives near Toulouse in France.
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