Frank Holds All the Cards

Frank tours the National Playing Card Museum in Turnhout, Belgium, located on the site of an 18th-century printing plant that produced the original playing cards for Europe and other parts of the world, such as China. The museum’s collection includes commercial and private brand cards, as well as antique presses from the plant’s history as it moved from letterpress, to lithography, and eventually film. The production process required special finishing equipment (to add rounded corners to the cards) and the company even produced its own packaging.

Published on August 2, 2019

Discussion

By David L. Zwang on Aug 02, 2019

Great story Frank... OK, your deal...

By Frank Romano on Aug 02, 2019

David
In our case it's jokers wild.

By Raymond Prince on Aug 02, 2019

That is a very well done museum. United States Playing Card Company in Cincinnati years ago had an extensive playing card museum. That museum concentrated on the cards themselves and not on the manufacture. The collection of cards was extensive as to type and designs including fortune telling cards, magic cards, trick cards, marked cards, etc. Since there move to Kentucky I am not sure if it is there anymore.

By Laurens Leurs on Aug 02, 2019

Great explanation, thanks!
It is just a forty minute drive for me, I really should revisit the museum this summer. My pictures from a previous visit can be found at https://www.prepressure.com/printing/museum/nationaal-museum-van-de-speelkaart

By Dov Isaacs on Aug 04, 2019

I didn't realize that Frank recently flew overseas to do this story … :-)

Or perhaps this has been saved from a previous DRUPA voyage?

Nonetheless, very interesting and informative!

By Robert Chung on Aug 05, 2019

The Chinese playing cards in the video is a mahjong set because I read Chinese and play mahjong for fun. There are 144 tiles in a typical mahjong set. Converting these tiles as cards makes the game portable and is ideal for travelers.