gejus-07-01

For New Year we use to send friends and relatives a card to wish them all the best. I do not know how this tradition started, probably not with a reused playing card. However, this card here proofs that secondary used playing cards do make nice New Year cards. I send it to you, to all unknown visitors of this great site to wish you all the best for every New Year to come!

Playing card maker unknown, The Netherlands.

Coll. Gejus van Diggele

The card that I have selected to kick off this year is a so-called transformation card. The illustration was made by hand over the printed pip, in such a way that the heart (a heart) was incorporated into the created image.
The art of transformation cards was developed in the 18th century. The first transformation cards were printed in an almanac by Cotta in Freiburg, France, in 1803. They were not meant for card playing, but for amusement. Soon the concept became very popular, both in Europe and in the USA, and over 130 different packs were produced.
These transformation packs inspired many professional and amateur artists to design their own transformation cards. They copied cards from existing packs or used their own creativity, like the unknown maker of this card.

I found this card in a set of 50 cards, all hand made transformation cards, with 7 different back designs, so this person used single cards, that were left over from several packs.