When playing cards first appeared in Europe in the 14th and 15th century, before the invention of printing, they were handmade and hand painted by regional artists, often miniature painters. So there's a long history in the cooperation between card makers and artists.
Although their role has been overtaken for a long time by artisans and engravers, one can say that they fully returned to the stage in the middle of the 20th century. After the post-war recession had passed, they have been invited by card makers and publishers to design special -non-standard- decks and those artists, who were not asked or didn't seek professional  quality, have found ways to publish their own decks, sometimes in numbered and very limited or low cost editions.

We have made a first selection of 5, that aims to show decks from this variety in artists and editions.
"The Archives" now hosts 24 previous expo's.
There will be regular changes in our selection and additions, so..........

VISIT US EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE.

Peter Dunham and Linnea Gits are a couple and both are graphic artists and designers. They have begun with designing a series of 6 decks. The Blue Blood deck was their first and in January 2013 their second deck, "Bohemia", was published. The complete series will be shown here. Each time we'll show their latest deck, but it will give access to their previous ones too.

UNKNOWN ARTIST

A handmade deck on wallpaper, with watercolours on the courts and aces, but the artist only left his initials. In short, an intriguing deck and of course a one-of-a-kind too!

5
SAMPLES

DOMINIC MURPHY

Dominic Murphy is a British artist from Hertfordshire with a catching style. In this "Surreal" deck he shows us his interior madness as an artist, composed as a self portrait in 54 episodes.

 

XPO'S

  

JOKERS

  

EPHEMERA

   HOME

A dynamic duo in arts: Kahn & Selesnick have been working together since 1986 and in 2007 they have produced a deck in the context of their "Eisbergfreistadt" project.

JOSEPH FEHER

The artist Joseph Feher had a passion for painting, history and Hawaii. The result of this mix is a deck that gives an insight in a part of the Hawaiian history, illustrated by some great portraits.

last section update: 6/4/2013