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# 4

Transformation Cards.

Transformation cards are playing cards in which suit symbols (the pips) are incorporated into an added image. This concept dates from as early as the 18th century, but transformation cards did not really become popular until publishers started using them to beautify their books and almanacs at the beginning of the 19th century. A few years later, they also started being issued as decks of cards. The transformation cards shown here were made by hand on real playing cards.

These "transformation cards" are shown in a children's book published in 1935. According to artist and author André Vlaanderen, this could be an amusing rainy-day activity: adding drawings to ordinary playing cards that incorporated the suit symbols already printed on the cards.

Vlaanderen, for example, had made cards to teach his children to eat everything on their plates. If they did this, they could select a card that their dad would then illustrate. Each of these cards, therefore, represents a day when his children ate everything on their plates. 

The original cards shown here are reproduced in one page in the book. The cards reproduced on the second page are probably lost.

Gejus                           

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