Washington Wine
Washington Wine illustrated playing cards, USA, 2004.
It is not widely known that Washington State is the second largest producer of premium wines in the United States, and this pack provides facts and figures relating to the successful growth of the industry in recent years. The pack was produced by Raconteur Press in 2004, and each card details specific aspects: clubs and hearts display the different grape varieties; diamonds – the wine-making process; spades – the American Viticulture Areas and individual wineries to be found in the State. There are 3 jokers – 2 of which highlight the two major perils of viticulture – winter freezes and phylloxera, while the third offers some background history. See the box►
Above: Washington Wine illustrated playing cards produced by Raconteur Press, USA, 2004.
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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