Ancient and Modern
A fully playable pack of cards with original artwork, with hand-painted full-figure named court cards in an old traditional style.
The court cards are based on the a traditional design from Flanders, originating in the 16th century. The kings, queens, and jacks in my interpretation retain all their characteristics, poses, accessories, coats of arms ... but I have redrawn them in a style that is more reminiscent of certain early French cards (and early English cards).
The kings and queens are also all named with the traditional names for the Flanders pattern. They are: Charlemagne, David, Hector of Troy, Julius Caesar, Lucretia, Penthesilea, Bathsheba, and Helen of Troy (spellings on the cards are typical period French spellings for these names).
The pip cards are essentially standard. There are four corner indices for the sake of playability. As expected for cards in the "English style", the ace of spades is fancy. The extra symbols seen on some of the pip cards are based on old European paper manufacturing watermarks.
The four extra cards are three jokers and a title card. The joker designs (monochromatic in red, black, and blue) are based on early French playing card imagery. The joker designs are nearly repeating, but not quite.
The court cards were drawn in pen and ink on paper. The colouring was done with watercolours, separately, and then digitally overlaid. Other parts of the design were drawn with vector graphics.
The custom two-way back design is based on gothic architectural elements overgrown by leafy branches, and the tuck box is a variation on that design.
Poker-size cards printed in 2026 in the UK on smooth-finish black-core playing-card board. 52-card deck plus 4 extra cards. The cards are delivered in a custom-printed tuck box.
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Available to order now. Please note the USA price includes a tariff - the cards will be sent with a Postal Delivery Duties Paid (PDDP) service.
Prices including P&P:
UK: £19.00
Canada / Japan: £29.00
Australia / NZ: £30.00
USA: £31.50
Secure payment on the PayPal site
Playing cards are sent from the UK.
The prices on the form above are for a pack of cards plus postage. If you want to order more than one pack of cards, it may be possible to offer a cheaper postage cost for the combined package. Please don't use the form, but contact me by email if you want to request this: 
International orders will be sent by international tracked mail by default. UK orders will be sent by 2nd class post.
