Thanks to our Toys and Games catalogue on www.wakefieldmuseums.org more people have been able to look at our collections. We have a rich mixture of visitors, including researchers, specialists and general browers.  Recently, a visitor to our pages gave us lots more information about these playing cards.

This set of cards was printed between 1862 and 1872 by Manchester printers Maclure, Macdonald and Macgregor. What is so special about them I hear you say, well, look closely and you'll see that each card has been transformed into a picture.

Cards like these were popular in the 1800s. It is believed to have started as a parlour game in the late 1700s, the card pips (hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades) are turned into a picture without being changed or moved - testing the artist's skills, so diamonds often became hats and hearts became bottoms, or red faces. The more pips on the card, the more difficult it is to draw a scene. Try having a go on a plain pack yourself, the spades are particularly difficult!

The first printed packs were sold in Germany in 1804 and British printers followed the fashion throughout the 1800s. we can date the cards from the tax paid on them. From 1862 it was 3 pence.

We don't know who the drew the pictures on this pack, but they follow different themes: the diamond and hearts court cards (King, Queen and Jack) are Mother Goose nursery rhymes and spades and clubs ones are literally spades and clubs.

 Maybe you can help us learn more about our collections. Visit www.wakefieldmuseums.org, click on museum collections and go have a browse!