Playing card decks by Northern Displayers

I accidentally stumbled upon Northern Displayers/Skadi Press, a small British publishing house that produces a limited number of books and playing card decks. There are four types of decks currently available to order from their website: the Liber Ludorum, the Commoners, the Pike and Clover deck, and the Rare Trumps tarot.

Liber Ludorum ('the Book of Games') is inspired by medieval gospel manuscripts and illustrated by Ian Cumpstey. The Aces are decorated in the style of gospel book covers, and the court card figures are made to look like (card-holding) evangelists.

The Commoners deck has adopted the style of old German playing cards but follows the structure of the standard poker deck. The artwork is inspired by the landscape and people of Cumbria in the north of England.

The Pike and Clover deck is a standard playing card deck illustrated in the style of the tarot de Marseille but instead of swords, cups, batons and coins, it has spades, hearts, clubs and diamonds.

The Pike and Clover cards also serve as the Minor Arcana in the Rare Trumps tarot. The 22 extra cards that represent the Major Arcana are figures inspired by old Italian 'trionfi' cards, so the images that correspond to each house are different than the ones we usually see in a tarot. For example, the Hermit is a father-time figure, the Tower is a thunderbolt hitting a tree, and the High Priestess is a Teacher.

(All images have been taken from the Northern Displayers website)

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