John Waddington Playing Cards W.D. & H.O. Wills (Bristol)

John Waddington Playing Cards W.D. & H.O. Wills (Bristol)

Image by brizzle born and bred
John Waddington Limited (London & Leeds) was a leading producer of playing cards and card games in the UK during the period 1922-1995.

The company had been founded in the nineteenth century by Mr John Waddington and Wilson Barratt as Waddingtons Ltd. It was renamed John Waddington Ltd in 1905. The original Mr John Waddington resigned in 1913.

During 1905 to 1923 John Waddington Ltd had developed from a very small printing establishment with practically all business obtained from the theatre, into a nationally known firm.

Also miniature playing cards were manufactured by Mardon Son & Hall for W.D. & H.O. Wills, 1932-4. When complete, these miniature packs could be exchanged for full-sized packs.

In 1935 Monopoly was first patented in the USA and Waddington's published a British edition based on London streets.

A special limited edition based on Leeds was published by John Waddington Ltd., possibly to celebrate the centenary of the City of Leeds in 1993.

There are also Bristol and Bath Monopoly boards for sale.

John Waddington started off as a theatrical printer in Leeds in 1896 and the firm began printing playing cards in 1921. The game "Monopoly" owes its genesis to an American Quaker woman who believed in the common ownership of land. By 1935 when the Parker Bros in Philadelphia acquired the rights to the game, it had become the embodiment of capitalist speculation.

The British rights to the game were acquired by the Leeds firm of Waddingtons in 1935 and the slightly bizarre choice of London streets was based on a flying visit to the capital by one of the firm's employees.

Since then the game has been customised to many cities and institutions, including a Leeds edition.

Waddington's are also reputed to have smuggled silk escape maps to British prisoners of war inside Monopoly sets. Waddingtons were taken over by the US firm of Hasbro in the 1990s.

See Mardons of Bristol link below

www.flickr.com/photos/brizzlebornandbred/2058989601/

Contact sheet

Image by GrinGod
The top card is a contact print showing all the cards and the order reference. The back of the contact sheet says that they are trying to have as little impact on the planet as possible and that the cards are made form sustainable forest wood... what about the packaging?!

Business Cards for SXSW

Image by Matthew Oliphant
I was thinking about getting new cards, even though I still have a few of the previous ones, and thought it would be fun to take the images from the Flickr Greeting videos I did recently.

The face helps you remember me, and the greeting is there as if I am always saying Hi whenever you look at it.

Which you will. You'll frame it. And put it on your wall. And look at it every day.

The cards are printed on 100% recycled paper and can be recycled but are also 100% biodegradable. Thanks moo.com!