Print exhibitions
Cards are often shown alongside engravings, book illustrations and posters. In that company it is easier to see that a deck belongs to the same world as the great art of printing.
Events
Events
You understand an old deck best when you see it up close. At an exhibition of prints you can compare cards with engravings of the same period; at a collectors' fair you can look at dozens of card backs in a row; at a talk you can hear how a curator dates a sheet; and at a workshop you can pull a print yourself. We describe these formats in general terms and suggest how to check an announcement in advance.
At a collectors' fair, ask where a deck came from: the story of a find is sometimes more interesting than its design.
How this section works: we describe the kinds of occasions where you can meet old cards, but we do not publish listings, programmes or invitations. Always confirm the date, address and admission arrangements with the organisers.
Types of events
Four formats in which the card meets its audience.
Collectors' fairs
Here you can examine many old decks up close, compare designs and practise reading makers' marks. Nobody minds you looking and asking questions, even if you take nothing home.
Museum talks
Curators explain how the age and origin of cards are established, why sheets must not be kept in the light for long and how paper collections are stored.
Printmaking workshops
Linocut or woodcut, hand printing, stencil colouring. After a session like this you start to understand how much work lies behind a single card.
How to check an exhibition announcement
- Find out who is running the event: a museum, a library, a city venue, a collectors' society or a private studio.
- Find the organiser's official page and check the date, time, address and admission there rather than in second-hand reports.
- See when the announcement was last updated: old listings circulate online long after an exhibition has closed.
- Book only through the organiser's website and do not open links from unexpected emails or messages.
- Ask whether photography is allowed: paper exhibits are often protected from flash.
- The day before your visit, check again that the opening hours and venue have not changed.
Read next
- People
Designer, engraver, printer, card maker, collector and curator: the people behind every deck.
- History
The journey of the playing card from Tang-dynasty China to the European suits and the Russian "Atlas" deck of 1862.
- Analysis
How the picture of a card king is built, and how to tell woodcut, copper engraving, lithography and offset apart by the print.
- Collections
Three reading routes: court cards and kings, card backs and patterns, small decks and patience.
- Archive
The magazine's contents and why pages of the former website on this domain are not being restored.
Sources
- Museum catalogues and publications on printmaking
- Encyclopaedic sources on the history of playing cards
Dates and facts about the history of playing cards come from open encyclopaedic and museum sources; where historians disagree, we try to say so. Please check the times, venues and admission arrangements for exhibitions and lectures with the organisers.