Whilst playing cards have long been a tool for magicians or for poker players of all ages, our favourite decks are always those that have been printed by those with a love of design in mind.

A unique deck of playing cards can take hundreds of hours to design; the effort, love and affection that goes into the process is nothing short of amazing. Whilst in more recent times there has been an explosion of ‘custom decks’ by the big US magic companies – it’s the smaller, independent designers and companies that have raised the bar in recent years.

Companies such as Uusi, Encarded, Vanda and Misc Goods Co have lifted the lid on creativity to such a level that sometimes it’s hard to appreciate the dedication that’s put into the work until you hold these unique pieces of work in your hand.  I know what you’re thinking – I would say that, right? Well not necessarily. Whilst theory11, Ellusionist & The Blue Crown’s cards sell in their hundreds these guys are arguably lesser known to the every day playing card buyer. Collectors have long been praising the companies mentioned, but outside of the industry they very often don’t get the credit they deserve.

So, to give a little credit to these highly skilled designers I wanted to highlight some of the most beautiful decks released in the past 12 months. All decks have been printed by the world famous, United States Playing Card Company – so you get the quality and design in one beautiful package. The first cards in the spotlight are:

Aurum Playing Cards

The purple Sovereign Edition was printed with a run of only 4000 cards in mid 2012 to critical acclaim. The Designer at Encarded.com, Paul Carpenter describes the Aurum deck as “intricate, elegant and fit for the Venetian royalty that inspired it.”

Every card was intricately designed and features multiple metallic inks, Paul also describes the design as “purposefully imperfect.” Some of the features of the card are listed below:

• Bee Casino Stock and Magic Finish.
• Metallic Inks: Each card has multiple metallic inks, including golds, purples and metallic blacks.
• Continuous Line Texturing. Both the faces and backs features a single, continuous line that wraps around itself in an unbroken stroke from one edge of the card to the other. If the line was unwrapped and in a straight line, it would be an incredible 279″ long. On the back the line is metallic purple on a solid purple field, and on the faces it a subtle grey.
• All features of the deck are custom, from the pips, to the court, to the indices.
• Lavishly appointed tuck box. Every possible extra feature, and some new ones, are built into the box. The box has custom stock, embossing, extensive gold foil, metallic ink and a custom diecut on the back.
• Guaranteed Production numbers. We won’t magically find more in the warehouse someday. Each edition of Aurum is made in the numbers stated and will not be produced again. If you get a special edition, you will know exactly how rare your deck is.

The Aurum deck was also produced in two other stunning variations, 550 of the ‘White Gold’ edition were housed in a beautiful tuck box made from pearlescent paper that shimmers both gold and white. Each of these decks came with a special individually numbered, holographic seal. Finally, the special ‘Laser Cut’ edition was described by The United States Playing Card Company as “the most expensive deck ever produced”. These cards are as rare as it gets for a USPCC deck and at last reading, only 90 have been made available for sale at encarded.com.

You can buy this deck and other beautiful, collectible and unusual decks at JP Playing Cards, Europe’s fastest growing collectible playing card store.

Card Collector’s Corner is published in association with JP Playing Cards who specialise in rare and collectible playing cards in the UK.

The post Card Collectors Corner – Beautiful Decks appeared first on Bicycle Cards.