Funded as a Kickstarter project on December 16, 2017 with £4,477 from 211 backers. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/737088756/pike-and-clover-playing-cards?ref=nav_search&result=project&term=pike%20and%20clover Pike and Clover is a deck of playing cards with a style based on the old Tarot de Marseille cards. 1000 were printed per conversation with the artist.

Liber Ludorum is a deck of playing cards created in the insular art style, as seen in gospel books of medieval Ireland and Britain.

In the scriptoria of monasteries of early medieval Britain and Ireland, breathtakingly beautiful illuminated manuscripts were created. The characteristic decorative patterns, calligraphic texts, and illustrative styles of these manuscripts are easily recognisable, and together make up what is now usually called the insular style. The Lindisfarne Gospels and the Book of Kells are no doubt the most famous of the insular gospel books, but there are also others.

Certain pages in the gospel books were illuminated with wonderful artwork, including detailed patterns of many kinds, and also portraits, usually of the four evangelists. The patterns were often used to make decorative borders, surrounding the portraits or canon tables. They were also used to make ornamented letters and text in so-called incipit pages, highly decorated pages with the first words of each of the gospels. Other pages were filled completely with patterns, and these are now usually called carpet pages.

The Liber Ludorum playing cards are a set of cards drawn in the style of an insular gospel book, with aces resembling the so-called carpet pages, and the court cards inspired by evangelist portraits.

Playing cards arrived in Europe at the end of the late medieval period, rather later than the time when the insular art style flourished. There can be no doubt that creating a set of playing cards would be far from the minds of the insular scribes while they were working on their gospel books. And yet we do have other surviving manuscripts, also illuminated, written by students of the medieval church, filled with thoughts of gaming, playing, changing fortunes and twisting fates, and our earthly existence.

What is Liber Ludorum anyway? 52 poker-sized (2.5" x 3.5") playing cards 4 bonus cards Custom artwork: 16 fully illustrated court cards and aces Custom watercolour pip cards Two-way back design 320 gsm black-core card stock (Superlux) with linen finish Custom tuck box Printed by Cartamundi

KickStarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/737088756/liber-ludorum-playing-cards

The Viceroys playing cards are a newly created deck of playing cards featuring artwork by Ian Cumpstey. The cards are inspired by the ornately patterned medieval Mamluk cards, but based around the standard playing card suits. Thus, the cards have the makeup of a standard deck of cards with suits of clubs, diamonds, hearts, and spades. In keeping with the Mamluk style, the court cards (Jack, Queen, and King) do not have pictures of human figures, but instead feature calligraphic mottoes, along with the elaborate floral designs seen on every card. The cards also have corner indices. Viceroys playing cards features: 52 poker-sized (2.5" x 3.5") playing cards 4 bonus cards A print of unique artwork on every card Two-ended back design 305 μm card stock with linen finish Custom tuck box Printed by Cartamundi in Belgium http://www.northerndisplayers.co.uk/viceroys.html https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/737088756/viceroys-playing-cards

Facsimile deck made by Solleone and Vito Arienti in 1977, titled “Jeu Grotesque,” based upon a set of cards made in France c.1800. This Solleone facsimile set was made in a limited edition of 999 decks. The court cards are double ended in the sense that each end has a different “grotesque” image at each end, joined top-of-the-head to top-of-the-head in the middle, while the pip cards show 2 side profiles of different images that are joined at the back. It is a piquet deck, and would be complete at 32 suited cards, except for the 1 card that is missing. There is also a card introducing the deck. The cards are large, measuring 97mm x 63mm, on unfinished stock. They are “wrapped” around the middle, and come in the original box.

 

NOTE - This deck was incorrectly deleted from the database and manually re-created.

This deck is a reproduction of a rare antique deck. The reproduction was made from the original deck, which is in the collection of the Fournier Museum in Vitoria, Spain.

Scans of each card can be seen at www.marytcusack.com/maryc/decks/html/Tarot/IlTarocco.html

The Tarocco delle Vetrate is a stunning, gloriously coloured Tarot from Luigi Scapini, artist of the Medieval Scapini Tarot and Shakespeare Tarot. The minors are generally pip-style cards, but some are very scenic. Though the cards have Italian titles, the companion booklet has a section in English.

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