Books on collecting Playing Cards

[Anthony]

Unlike many now a days, I actually still like reading books. I've come across a few on Playing Card Collecting but was wondering if anyone had a favorite or any recommendations.

The ones I've found, please chime in on what you think of them if you've owned or know anything about them:

• Collecting Playing Cards, Identification and Value Guide by Mark Pickvet
• The Hochman Encyclopedia of American Playing Cards / Suppliment by Tom Dawson
• Collectible Playing Cards by  Frederique Crestin-Billet

[Mydnyghte]

Pretty interested in this myself, I do enjoy reading and would love to know a little history. The Google machine is fine, but there will always be a place for books. Damn the e-readers!

[Emmanuel]

Unlike many now a days, I actually still like reading books. I've come across a few on Playing Card Collecting but was wondering if anyone had a favorite or any recommendations.

The ones I've found, please chime in on what you think of them if you've owned or know anything about them:

• Collecting Playing Cards, Identification and Value Guide by Mark Pickvet
• The Hochman Encyclopedia of American Playing Cards / Suppliment by Tom Dawson
• Collectible Playing Cards by  Frederique Crestin-Billet

I own the third book, Collectible Playing Cards by Frederique Crestin-Billet. The book is heavy on color photos, which I like, but readers who want more text and extensive coverage may not enjoy it as much.

I also own an older edition of this book, A History of Playing Cards by Catherine Perry Hargrave.
http://www.amazon.com/History-Playing-Cards-Bibliography-Gaming/dp/0486412369/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1381641343&sr=8-1&keywords=a+history+of+playing+cards

It's much more of a scholarly publication on playing cards than the other books, but it only covers decks before the 1930s (although the newer edition may cover more recent decades). Most of the photos are in black and white, but they are fascinating to look at.

[MyHeLL]

Pretty interested in this myself, I do enjoy reading and would love to know a little history. The Google machine is fine, but there will always be a place for books. Damn the e-readers!

I'm totally agree.

Thanks for the titles.

[Don Boyer]

Most of the literature you're going to find on collecting playing cards will cover vintage decks or singles.  There's very little in print about the more modern decks.

Having said that, the collectors' organization "52 Plus Joker" puts out a quarterly publication called "Clear the Decks".  They do still mostly cover vintage, but some of their articles will cover more recent decks, many of their articles have helpful information that can help one date a deck's age and Lee Asher in recent issues has been covering decks of more recent "vintage" - as in modern custom decks.  Among the ones he's covered are Tendril, Seasons and the new Be Cardistry deck out of China.

While the publication itself is black and white except for color covers, there is an online version kept by the Conjuring Arts Research Center as part of its "Ask Alexander" web-accessible database - 52+J members are provided with free access to this and the recent online issues have color photos/scans where the print edition has mostly black-and-whites.

[Anthony]

Thanks for the input Emmanuel and Don. I've come across the site Don and a few others, I don't know if I'm quite ready for an annual membership to any playing card site just yet.