English Arpak Playing Cards, circa 1930s

Item — Box: 1, item: 14

Scope and Contents

No seal. No casing.

Dimensions: 2.32" x 3.5"

Quantity: 54

Original inventory number: 16

Dates

Creation: circa 1930s

Conditions Governing Access

Advanced notice required for access.

Biographical / Historical

Before the creation of Arpak cards, people would "accidentally" place cards of different suits on top of one another when the colors matching (e.g., placing a diamond on a heart). As this became more of a problem, the development of what was called "No Revoke" cards came about. Each suit had a different color in order to obviously see when a mistake had been rendered. Arpak created No Revoke cards with a black background, rather than the traditional white, in order to allow these colors to stand out more.

Full Extent

From the Collection: 2 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

From the Collection: English

Additional Description

Physical Description

No seal or casing present. Complete deck of cards including one joker and the original 6 of clubs used as the sample card that has a corner cut away. The backs of the cards are a navy blue color with white printed design and a woman's profile in the center. Cards have black backgrounds and each suit is a different color: hearts are red, spades are yellow, clubs are green, and diamonds are white.