Introduction to collecting Playing Cards.

Swap cards are mostly from a deck of normal playing cards. Collectors take one of each design or pattern from the deck for their collection. Usually there are a pair, but sometimes there may be four decks in a box, with different colours or pictures in each deck. Sometimes there is no 'pair' for a card, if just one pack was produced by the manufacturer, using the same pattern for the entire deck of cards. (Swap cards were also produced by Coles and Woolworths in the 1950's. These are now rare, and highly valued among collectors.)

A matching pair of cards can be the same design with variations in colour, or different pictures with the same kind of border to show they are a pair. There may even be four varieties of the one pattern in different colours. The subjects on the front of cards are endless. Some collectors only save a certain topic, such as animals, or just one kind of animal. Old fashioned or vintage-style pictures such as crinoline ladies and Old Masters paintings are popular. Other collectors specialise in Jokers or Aces.

In 1956, Coles Stores produced four separate sets of cards to commemorate the Olympic Games in Melbourne. There are 28 cards in each set, with flags of the competing nations, flora, fauna, industry, and sporting events pictured on them.

Wednesday 13 May 2009

Vintage ladies cards.

Now that the dogs and cats are 'done', I thought I should start on the Old Fashioned/Vintage/Crinoline Ladies cards, whichever you want to call them. Strictly speaking, they are not all Crinoline ladies, so I prefer to just call them Old Fashioned Ladies. Some of the ladies on these cards have male partners...maybe I should call them Old Fashioned People? Ah, what the heck...
Some of these images are not very clear. This is because the cards themselves are faded due to their age. Bear in mind that I have had these older cards since the 1950's, and they were faded when I got them, so goodness only knows how old they are - 70 or 80 years maybe?




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1 comment:

Trish Hunter said...

Oh no gina!! You've made me green with envy!! haha.
I can't believe you've seen so many Trish items of late, yet I've found none :(
It's weird, because I get weird vibes when I need to do something and they're usually correct... and as soon as I was on my way home, I got my vibes telling me to go back (which I obviously didn't) but oh dear maybe I should've.
Ok so that sounds completely bazaar, but it's true.
Hmm... maybe I should go back.

14 May 2009 at 08:19

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