Alice In Wonderland Jokers

Quick update.  Update 10/2019. I just bought an Alice in Wonderland Playing Card Deck entitled "We're all Mad Here". I'm not sure where I bought it from but it's lovely. Marked 1865 on the cover, the date the book was published. The deck might be reusing much of the original artwork.

First, the back and a joker:

Then two examples of the artwork on the royal cards and aces.

I bought a  Mad Hatter joker. Here is it front and back.

Mad Hatter Joker

The Back

Here's my Alice in Wonderland deck, a Steampunk Adventure deck.  There are three jokers: the Cheshire Cat, the White Rabbit, and Alice.

The Cheshire Cat Joker

White Rabbit Joker

Alice: The Joker

Here is the back of the Alice in Wonderland deck.  Pretty good but it didn't blow me away.

 On the other hand, I loved the Jack, Queen, and King of Diamonds. Especially the queen. The detail on the queen that is so cool is the tiny mouse that she's holding.  Generally, the details on the royal cards are great.  The diamonds are cool since this is an integrated deck which is really rare.

The next picture is not of a playing card.  This morning, I opened my Alice in Wonderland deck partially because last night for Halloween, we dressed up as Alice and Mad Hatter. Wifey was Alice, I was the Hatter.   We won first prize for costumes at a neighborhood party. I'll probably be scraping greasepaint off my face for a week but it was worth it in that Wifey liked how she looked as Alice (actually, when she wasn't next to me, people thought she was Dorothy).

Alice and the Mad Hatter

Walgreens Playing Cards: Collectables!

I've recently joined some Facebook groups where the great collectors and connoisseurs of playing cards discuss their interest. Oddly, Walgreens has been mentioned a number of times as stocking at low prices ($4 to $6 each) a number of collectable level decks of playing cards.  So while I was running errands this morning, I stopped and bought 6 decks.

Walgreen's Collectable Decks

The first one that I opened was the Emotion deck. It features two jesters with just the headshot (so they go in the headshot portion of the collection).  Here they are, classic jesters with just a little more nuanced emotion that one might find on a typical jester.

 As part of my education about card collecting, I'm now thinking that I should keep more info on the origin of each joker. I'm not entirely sure how to do this but I'll start by using blog for record keeping. The Emotion deck box and back are pictured below. The front of the cards are all black and face cards and aces are particularly beautifully decorated.

The second box that i opened was the Aurora deck. The two topsy turvy or mirror image jokers are below followed by the box and a picture of the back.  The face cards use the classic designs but with a new color scheme and the same double frame that is on the jokers.

Update September 29, 2018. I've just posted another tribute to Walgreens Playing Card Selection.

Can I embed a video here?

Travel Jokers

I have around 56 jokers in the travel section of the joker collection (as of 10/2107).  The first nine deal with vintage modes of transportation, starting with a steam ship joker

Ship Joker

While not exactly a common mode of transport, this rocket man is going someplace.

Rocket Man Joker

The next is another classic sailing ship. As soon as I have some time, I'll figure out the difference between one, two, and tree mast ships and how they are rigged so I can use a more precise term than a sailing ship. Perhaps something like a clipper or schooner. Below this joker,  I've provided an image of the back of the joker.

Sailing Ship Joker

I don't usually show the back of jokers but I thought this one was eye catching. It's the back of the sailing ship joker just above.  The guy is dark skinned and in Turkish exotic clothes. She seems to be dressed as sort of post war 20s flapper in a long gown with a big peacock feather.

New York Consolidate Card Company Joker

Now some train jokers...

Train Jokers

This looks like a military ship.

Airplane Joker

The next 9 jokers are pictured as a group. They feature globes or balloons or are otherwise spherical.   The organization of jokers by category and subcategory is important to me. But most important of all is the creation of aesthetically harmonious pages which also fit into these categories.  This one, for instance, is built around the ballooning travel theme and includes a number of thematically related spherical objects such as a globe personified as an airplane.  Who makes this stuff up?  There's also the earth seen from the sky and an abstract pattern.

Balloon and Globe Jokers

 Here's a set of 9 travel jokers either with maps or scenery.

Map Jokers

  The article above was written in 2017. Here's what my travel subsections look like in May 2020: it's now organized in five subsections! Bon voyage!

1. 1. Vehicles
   2. American places and Americana (different than American people)
   3. Non US Places
   4. Maps
   5. International people types

   Here's a link back to the overall joker organization.