My Transformation Decks

A transformation deck of cards has the pips designed into an image on each card. Below for instance is a nine of hearts from a Peter Wood transformation deck: Notice that the there are nine hearts in the image below placed in the exact spots where they would be be in a standard deck. What's cool is how they are integrated into the picture. It's a very very special art form.   

Can you see the nine hearts in this image?
Transformation Playing Cards

Let me point them out for you....

I have a small collection of transformation decks. Why? Because I think they're cool and I love looking at them.

John's Transformation Decks

        Back row, left to right:
The Royal Mischief deck is unopened (unusual for me).  It's contemporary and widely available online.  Patrick Valenza is the artist. Published by US Game Systems.  

Aesops Fables is a contemporary deck, number 29 of 50 hand-made in England by Elaine Lewis. I bought it directly (online) from her. She's created other transformation decks such as "Once Upon a Time." I love her work.  I'd love to have it also available as playable deck even though it would not longer by individually hand-done. She seems to be in Bradford, N England. NE of Manchester.
2000PIPS by Peter Wood. My deck is 613 of 1000 and bought directly from Peter Wood.
Wild! also by Peter Wood might be a semintransformation deck and the first deck published by NewtsGames.

        Front row, left to right.

A Motley Pack - This Australian deck by Sunish Chabba and Ishan Trivedi,was one of a thousand from Kickstarter. This deck is based "On the Cards; Or, A Motley Pack" by Garnet Walch, published in Melbourne in 1875. 

This Julia Podany deck is beautiful and while I have stored it with my transformation decks, I now realize that it's really not a trans deck. Next time I update the picture, this beautiful deck won't be there.

Comic Eclipse Deck  is the first American-designed transformation deck and the first transformation deck to be printed with a joker.

Een Hollands Transformatiespel - my deck is 101 or 150.

Ackermann Bartlett 1818 Transformation Playing Cards USPCC. Only 2068 of this modern reproduction deck were printed but they are widely available.

Let's take some closer looks... The newest (to me) of my transformation decks is the Eclipse Comic Playing Cards Deck. 

The Comic Eclipse deck was published in 1876 by F. H. Lowerre in NY. It is the first American-designed deck to be published and also, the first transformation deck to be printed with a joker. It was preceded by three Transformation decks published in the US but which were  reprints (with a few minor changes) of previously published European decks. Dave Seaney's website can tell you more about F.H. Lowerre.

The Comic Eclipse deck, while historic and clever, is not universally admired.  As Dave puts it: "Despite its beauty, it has, in the view of many, some faults, being not as artistic as many of its European predecessors. The themes are not as clever and there are many suit signs that are unused in the overall design."  It sold originally for $0.52 per deck.

The Eclipse deck is in Hochman as T3, P 206. I bought it on the 52PlusJoker Trading Floor 2024 from TbE. It is complete with all 52 cards plus the joker.  While expensive, the deck was worth it for me since it clicked several of my collecting goals: a joker on the joker poster, an very American deck, and a transformation deck, and it's beautiful and original.  Sadly, I don't have the original box, the cards have square corners, and the cards feel more like cardboard, not like playing cards (Is there a better way to describe this?).  A reproduction of the deck was created by PCD in 2019 with blue, green, and red backs. It's widely available.

Eclipse Deck - Joker
Eclipse is the First Transformation deck with a joker.

The Royal Cards, Ace, & Deuce of the Eclipse Transformation Deck

 

Peter Wood - I have two transformation decks that I bought from Peter Wood from the UK around the start of this century. I have a 2000PIPs and Wild!  The box of each deck is signed by Peter Wood himself.

2000PIPS by Peter Wood
Joker 1
Transformation Deck

2000PIPS by Peter Wood
Joker 2
Transformation Deck

 Take a look at how beautifully Peter Wood has worked the pips into the design for each of these cards in the 2000PIPS deck.

2000PIPS by Peter Wood
 Transformation Deck 

 Peter Wood - 2000PIPS 
 Transformation Deck 

The 2000PIPS Deck
Box and Back
Printed by the Design & Print Partnership

The Wild! deck was the first one published by NewtsGames (formerly NewtsCards), a US-based boutique card publisher. 

The Wild! Deck was designed by Peter Wood

In the Wild! cards,  the pips are again woven into the card designs but aren't kept in the position where they would be found in a standard deck of cards. The designs are  animal-themed and meant to appeal to children and animal lovers.  They are copyrighted by Newts Playing Cards at NewtsGames.com, a Playing Card Superstore (sic).

In the Wild! Jokers

Wild! Animal Cards

A Motley Pack. Here's a transformation deck that I added to my collection in late 2019. It was purchased from the Gamblers Warehouse. It was published by Sunnish Chabba and Ishan Trevida of the Guru Playing Card company, Melbourne Australia. It's a tribute of "the beautiful work of Garnet Walch & George Gordan McRae titled "On the Cards. Or, A Motley Pack. A Christmas Annual published in Melbourne in the year 1875..."  The jokers are a diptych.

Ackermann Bartlett 1818 Transformation Playing Cards printed by USPCC. Only 2068 of this modern reproduction deck were printed but they are still available in a few places online.  Here's the ace, deuce, three, jack, queen, and king of each of the four suits.  

Here's two closeups so you can admire the details.

Did the original 1818 deck have three jokers? Two jokers? Did its original publication predate the invention of the joker by around half a century? YES to this last question yet the reproduction deck has these three jokers added to the deck. I think that's Great!

I have done some web surfing and I have learned that there are a number of modern reproductions of old transformation decks available. I think I'll get me some more... Add your suggestions in the comments section

The best index of transformation decks that I have seen is the WOPC Transformation article by Simon Wintle.

There are degrees of transformation decks.... true versus so-called transformation decks! 

It turns out in the esoteric world of  transformation decks,  fine distinctions are made and some people distinguish between "so called" and "true" transformation decks. For instance, the description of my Circus Transformation Playing Card Deck by F Robert Schick (1924-1988) says:  

...in designing this true Transformation Deck (emphasis added), the artist has exercised no poetic license whatsoever with manipulating the sizes, placement or shapes of the 'pip's unlike some of the few "so-called" Transformation Decks which have been designed in recent years.

Stay tuned for my article about my Frankendecks, coming soon!

In the meantime, you should keep reading learning about cards, particularly jokers. Here's some places to go next:

• Resources for card and joker collecting that I find useful. Facebook groups, museums, websites, books, publishers, and other collectors. But above all, the Hochman Encyclopedia and the World of Playing Cards website.
• The USPC Company Joker Poster and my ambition (obsession?)  of getting all 72 of them.
  
• Joker Displays that I've framed and put on the wall.
• My inquiry into the emergence of the joker  in the 1860 and 70s in the USA. Also, my Old American Jokers Organized by Publisher. Eg Perfection,  Dougherty , ARRCO, or Standard. 
•  I'm particularly focused on the Matching Jokers by Congress, published 1898-1904. 
• The Mechanics of my Joker Collecting
• Other joker collectors that I've met f2f: Dan Nordquist ; Joop, Fred, Ronald, and Jelle, and a bit about me. And an article about attending the 2023 52PlusJoker Conference in Cleveland and the 2024 in Niagara Falls.
• Portrayals of African Americans on Playing Cards and Rory 

52 Plus Joker 2024 Conference: Niagara Falls NY

 This was my second 52 Plus Joker conference and I thoroughly enjoyed it. This second time, I felt that I was more in the mix and understood better what was happening.

This first picture is me with Elettra Deganello who is not only one of the best card designers in the modern world, she also should win prizes for her grace and sweetness. It was wonderful having her at the conference and The Club Deck of 2024 might be the best ever!

  The Congress Guy's license plate!

Here are I am with some notable collectors and wisemen of playing card collecting.

Here I am with the Queen herself - as her last appearance at the 52 Plus Joker Conference - Judy Dawson.

Matt Schacht and I took a walk over to Canada so we could see the Niagara Falls a little better. We could but it was rainy and a little cold so we didn't linger.

My first 52 Plus Joker Conference in Cleveland in 2023. 
The Hochman Encyclopedia of American Playing Cards
Card Collecting Resources such as websites, books, collectors, and museums!

Playing Card Symbols on the Kings

I'm looking hard at the kings trying to figure out what the symbols mean on these playing cards. Here's a few pictures of the four kings from a standard modern playing card deck.  At first, they look much alike in their medieval colorful kingly garb with all the same symbols.

But they are definitely not identical. Here are a few differences to note:

The king of spades looks towards his left and has a sword
The king of hearts - the suicide king - holds a sword behind his head (or perhaps in it).  He is the only king who has both hands shown and who does not have a moustache.

The king of clubs holds something like a sword but which might be less pointed. Perhaps a club? He also has an orb-like thing held probably in his right hand. He looks to his right.

The king of diamonds  has an axe and is in profile.

(This by the way, is my second stab at looking at the symbols on royal playing cards).

Are these details of any significance? Do these details show up consistently? Here are a few other images of the four kings from different decks of playing cards.  These details seem the same across these decks (which admittedly, are all modern American decks).

Oops, in this next set of I have reversed the position of the King of Diamonds and of Hearts. Sorry.

Looking further afield, here are four kings from a Tarot deck published by Grimaud - Decale, designed by Emmanuel Jeannin-Nalete and Martine Garrivet. It's from the mid 1900s.

Many details are mostly the same. All have wigs and beards just like the standard modern decks.  The kings of spade holds a sword in his right but only the hilt is visible.  The king of hearts still holds his orb in his right hand. The tarot king of clubs holds a sword which appears to be a much larger and different type of sword than the one held by the king of spades. The king of diamonds also holds a sword which is smaller than the one heard by the king of clubs and much like the sword held by the king of spades. All these kings hold scepters in their left hands which is quite different from the modern kings.

These two kings of spades look nearly identical. Both wear crowns, hold swords, and have wigs, moustaches, and beards. Both are presented in three quarter profile.

Lets look at one set of details around the crown.

The crown of the king of clubs on the left has a few horizontal bands. Starting at the bottom, they are blue, red, yellow,  blue, and the top is yellow. Except for the bottom blue stripe, they all have some  wavey peaks. In the highest row, each peak is topped by a three cornered plant or leaf.  

The crown of the king of spades on the right is along the same lines but rendered slightly differently. The crown's bands are black, red, black, and the yellow top has a black wavey band inside the yellow again with organic three leafed shapes atop each wave.    

Here's an ultramodern king of hearts who is still the suicide king and looking slightly to his right. OH, and from reading some very well researched articles on WOPC (which I list at the end of this article)< I learn that the Suicide King use to hold a battle axe!)

The other kings each have their distinctive features. 

 There is a great deal of speculation about the symbols and association on playing cards.  Some people say that four suits represent the four classes of society. There's a meme that is going around on the web about the 52 cards and the fact that there are 52 weeks in a year.

The common system of suits used in the US - spades, hearts, clubs, and diamonds - is based on a system worked out in France a few centuries ago.  The Italians primarily use swords (like spades), cups (like hearts), coins (diamonds), and clubs (but they look like a club). The Germans too have their own suits: acorns, leaves, hearts and bells.

Returning to the French playing card deck history, the French tended to give names to the royal cards switching from history, mythology and the Bible. For instance, the King of Hearts is Charlemagne; the King of Spades is King David, the King of Diamonds is Julius Caesar; and the King of Clubs is Alexander the Great. But the truth is more complicated than that because each region of France had its own traditions, style, and symbolism around decks of cards so here is not one single symbolic generalization. However, in 1701, a law in France made the Paris Pattern the only allowed design for playing cards which ended the dozen or more regional design variations. I am personally very thankful that they standardized playing cards not cheeses for that would have really been a historic loss.

After my efforts to learn from staring at the cards, I did a little search and found Simon Wittle has some answers on WOPC about the History of the Court Cards. Also on the  History of the Suicide King (of Hearts). Ken Lodge also has an article about the French Regional Playing Cards. There's a great survey article by Paul Bostock on why our modern cards look the way they do.