Hello everyone!

The pre-order for Mantis Playing Cards is running at full speed. We wanted to give you a sneak peek into the tutorial that comes with every pre-order.

Sean filmed and released a performance of The Lucky Card, one of the eight tricks he explains in the tutorial.

You can watch the performance here: https://youtu.be/8bVBkrZMUFE?si=SvupaewHyD0L7gzv

Pavel

I wanted to show 3 different original boxes from my souvenir collection that are not currently pictured anywhere else that I could see. Each one houses a 53-card deck of Philippine Souvenir Cards listed as SX22 in the Exposition and World's Fair chapter from the Dawson/Hochman encyclopedia. I have never seen a 54th card (title card, list of views card, booklet, etc.) for this deck but would love to see an example if one exists and a fellow collector is willing to add it to this topic. Each card comes with gilt edges and shows a photograph of "Philipeno" (spelled this way on the 2S) people, places and scenes of daily life as they were 120 years ago at the beginning of the 20th century.

The first photo shows what I believe to be the first edition of the original box (OB) which states on the front panel, "Published by The Philippine Photograph Co., Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis, Mo." There may be something else printed on this last line but, if there is, it is covered by the tax stamp and cannot be read. The fair was held in 1904 and this verbiage confirms what appears in the encyclopedia.

The second photo shows what appears to be a second edition of the original box for this deck. It is the same as the first edition except that there now appears at the bottom of the front panel, a small sticker pasted over the original printing which reads "Squires, Bingham & Co., Photographic Supplies. and Philippine Views., Manila, P.I." This box also has a tax stamp in the same location as above and it has a 1904 cancellation printed in red but I cannot make out which company applied it as it is indistinct. This cancellation does not appear to be the standard USPC one but consists of 3 lines. The first line ends in "...C. Co.", the second line ends in "...LY. followed by what may be the number 19, and the third line shows the year 1904.

The third photo shows what may be a third edition of the original box for this deck. Here, a much larger sticker has been pasted over the entire front panel and it simply reads "Philippine Souvenir Playing Cards published by Squires, Bingham & Co., Manila, P.I."

All I could find out about Squires, Bingham & Co. is that it was a Manila print shop founded by Ray Squires and William Bingham in 1905. Now, in my opinion, these different boxes raise the following questions. What was the relationship between The Philippine Photograph Co. and Squires, Bingham & Co.? Despite the same cancellation year of 1904 showing on the tax stamp from the second and third editions of these original boxes, does the fact that Squires, Bingham & Co. not being founded until the following year imply that there may have been some overstock of these decks and that they continued to be sold by this company in the years after the fair? Again, some reader possessing greater research skills than my own may be able to delve into this latest mystery and provide answers to these questions.

Ankh Playing Cards by ARK Playing Cards (Kickstarter)

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cardcollection/ankh-playing-cards-by-ark

Current funding level: already funded
Kickstarter ends: Tuesday, May 28, 2024

ARK Playing Cards is one of the foremost creators of luxury playing cards in recent years, and they are highly regarded for their lavish production and creative tuck boxes.  Their newest project is Ankh Playing Cards and is currently being funded on Kickstarter. 



This deck is named after the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic symbol ankh, which represents life.  Ancient Egyptian religion was fixated on their ideas about life and about the afterlife, and these provide the inspiration for this new deck.

An elaborate tuck case immediately captures this Egyptian theme.  ARK's previous project, Apollo Playing Cards, was inspired by the Greek sun god Apollo, and featured a unique tuck case with a pop-out feature that could unfold and rotate to form a complete circle to depict the sun which the god Apollo was all about.  In a similar way, Ankh Playing Cards has an ideal and unique tuck case, because it unfolds to create a pyramid structure, which perfectly matches the Egyptian theme that inspired this deck.  This animated gif does a good job of showing what this effect looks like:



The pyramid is immediately recognizable as an Egyptian icon, and the case opens up to create this triangular structure.  The mechanism relies on a nested structure of six layers, with hidden sliding tracks and pivots that ensure it opens and closes smoothly.

The artwork on the cards combines handdrawn and digital techniques, drawing upon Egyptian mythology and historical murals, in a distinctly classical Egyptian style.



The card faces depict the different gods of ancient Egypt, and various aspects of their mythology and religion, with illustations and motifs found throughout all aspects of the deck.





Much like we've seen with previous ARK projects, this project is available with different levels and styles of luxury packaging:
● Standard Deck (limited edition of 3333): single deck, including the creative pop-out pyramid tuck case (US$30)
● Artist Boxset (limited edition of 999): holographic foil deck & monochromatic deck, in a gift box with a book (US$75)
● Walnut Boxset (limited edition of 333): holographic foil gold deck with gilded edges, plus a collectible coin, in a walnut gift box (US$185)
● Luxury Black (limited edition of 99): black-edged deck, plus an embossed metal plate (US$150, only available as part of the "All-In" reward)



Extra add-ons like uncut sheets and coins are also available separately.  Here's a preview of how each of the above four packaging and deck options look.

1. Standard Deck

This is a limited edition of 3333 decks, all with individually numbered seals, and is the base level deck, but includes the creative pyramid themed tuck case.

Tuck case





Cards











2. Artist Box set

These 999 box sets (again individually numbered) consist of a special gift box that includes a book, and two decks: a holo deck with the special pyramid tuck case, and a second special deck which is more monochromatic in colour and style.

Box







Holo deck











Special deck





Book



3. Walnut Box set

The Walnut Box set is limited to 333 copies, all individually numbered, and in a stunning wooden display box with a pyramid shape.  The deck included is a gold deck with holographic foil and gilded edges, and there's also a collectible coin.

Box







Gold deck











Coin



4. Luxury Black set

Only 99 individually numbered Luxury Black sets are available, and you can only get this with the "all in" option.  This is a black deck   (with black edges) that has white artwork and design, and comes with a numbered embossed metal plate.

Black deck







Metal plate



Head over to the project page for more pictures of these extravagant collectors pieces.

Kickstarter link

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cardcollection/ankh-playing-cards-by-ark

thank you for this information Toby.  Great to see the Joker and Box for the first variant which I don't recall having ever seen previously!

This post will serve as both an introduction and a correction/revision to two of the current listings in the latest Bollhagen Railroad Playing Cards reference book.
The first photograph below shows both the back design and the Ace of Spades for what I believe to be a previously unknown, or at least unlisted, deck issued by De La Rue of England for the Canadian Pacific Railway which may also be the earliest. This back design shows a pair of crossed flags with the intertwined CPR logo below them on a borderless white background. Based upon the tiny "1" indices on the aces and, after checking with the wopc.co.uk website, it appears that this Ace of Spades was issued circa 1885-1890. Unfortunately, I do not have an original box for this deck to show here.
Now we come to a pair of corrections regarding the actual dates of issue for two of the Canadian Pacific Railway listings in Bollhagen (please see the second photograph of the two back designs in question). These are designated as CP-9 circa 1910 and CP-10 circa 1920 and both are assigned a rarity of V.5 which means "very difficult to locate." Based upon my own experience, I actually believe these to be much tougher to find and should merit a rarity of at least V.6 which means "rare."
The back design shown on the right of the second photograph with the same crossed flags and CPR logo but with a red border, represents the CP-9 listing and, based upon the third photograph of the Ace of Spades and joker from this deck, we can see that the actual issue date for this deck should be some 20 years earlier circa 1890. This is because these two cards are from the earliest version of the Treasury No. 89 brand by The Russell & Morgan Printing Company found in the Dawson/Hochman encyclopedia listed under US18-1 which we know to have been introduced in that same year. The fourth photograph shows the original box which houses this deck and it is the same kind of cloth slipcase in which other early brands were issued by RMP.
The reversible back design shown on the left of the second photograph with the same crossed flags but with the CPR logo now above them, represents the CP-10 listing and this deck was made using a later version of the Treasury No. 89 brand by USPC. The original box for this deck is shown in the fifth photograph and the joker is the standard design for this brand shown in the encyclopedia under the US-18-2 listing but with the earlier thin "US" indices in the corners. The tax stamp appears to have a cancellation date of 1902 and so, this issue date, too, should be approximately 20 years earlier than the 1920 date currently shown in the Bollhagen reference.