A transformation deck of cards has the pips designed into an image on each card. Below for instance is a nine of hearts from a Peter Wood transformation deck: Notice that the there are nine hearts in the image below placed in the exact spots where they would be be in a standard deck. What's cool is how they are integrated into the picture. It's a very very special art form.
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| Can you see the nine hearts in this image? Transformation Playing Cards |
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| John's Transformation Decks |
The Royal Mischief deck is unopened (unusual for me). It's contemporary and widely available online. Patrick Valenza is the artist. Published by US Game Systems.
2000PIPS by Peter Wood. My deck is 613 of 1000 and bought directly from Peter Wood.
Wild! also by Peter Wood might be a semintransformation deck and the first deck published by NewtsGames.
The Comic Eclipse deck was published in 1876 by F. H. Lowerre in NY. It is the first American-designed deck to be published and also, the first transformation deck to be printed with a joker. It was preceded by three Transformation decks published in the US but which were reprints (with a few minor changes) of previously published European decks. Dave Seaney's website can tell you more about F.H. Lowerre.
The Comic Eclipse deck, while historic and clever, is not universally admired. As Dave puts it: "Despite its beauty, it has, in the view of many, some faults, being not as artistic as many of its European predecessors. The themes are not as clever and there are many suit signs that are unused in the overall design." It sold originally for $0.52 per deck.
The Eclipse deck is in Hochman as T3, P 206. I bought it on the 52PlusJoker Trading Floor 2024 from TbE. It is complete with all 52 cards plus the joker. While expensive, the deck was worth it for me since it clicked several of my collecting goals: a joker on the joker poster, an very American deck, and a transformation deck, and it's beautiful and original. Sadly, I don't have the original box, the cards have square corners, and the cards feel more like cardboard, not like playing cards (Is there a better way to describe this?). A reproduction of the deck was created by PCD in 2019 with blue, green, and red backs. It's widely available.
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| Eclipse Deck - Joker Eclipse is the First Transformation deck with a joker. |
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| 2000PIPS by Peter Wood Joker 1 Transformation Deck |
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| 2000PIPS by Peter Wood Joker 2 Transformation Deck |
Take a look at how beautifully Peter Wood has worked the pips into the design for each of these cards in the 2000PIPS deck.
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| 2000PIPS by Peter Wood Transformation Deck |
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| Peter Wood - 2000PIPS Transformation Deck |
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| The 2000PIPS Deck Box and Back Printed by the Design & Print Partnership |
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| The Wild! Deck was designed by Peter Wood |
In the Wild! cards, the pips are again woven into the card designs but aren't kept in the position where they would be found in a standard deck of cards. The designs are animal-themed and meant to appeal to children and animal lovers. They are copyrighted by Newts Playing Cards at NewtsGames.com, a Playing Card Superstore (sic).
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| In the Wild! Jokers |
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| Wild! Animal Cards |
A Motley Pack. Here's a transformation deck that I added to my collection in late 2019. It was purchased from the Gamblers Warehouse. It was published by Sunnish Chabba and Ishan Trevida of the Guru Playing Card company, Melbourne Australia. It's a tribute (does this mean reprint?) of "the beautiful work of Garnet Walch & George Gordan McRae titled "On the Cards. Or, A Motley Pack. A Christmas Annual published in Melbourne in the year 1875..." The jokers are a diptych.
There are degrees of transformation decks.... true versus so-called transformation decks!
It turns out in the esoteric world of transformation decks, fine distinctions are made and some people distinguish between "so called" and "true" transformation decks. For instance, the description of my Circus Transformation Playing Card Deck by F Robert Schick (1924-1988) says:
...in designing this true Transformation Deck (emphasis added), the artist has exercised no poetic license whatsoever with manipulating the sizes, placement or shapes of the 'pip's unlike some of the few "so-called" Transformation Decks which have been designed in recent years.
Stay tuned for my article about my Frankendecks, coming soon!
- Resources for card and joker collecting that I find useful. Facebook groups, museums, websites, books, publishers, and other collectors. But above all, the Hochman Encyclopedia and the World of Playing Cards website.
- The USPC Company Joker Poster and my ambition (obsession?) of getting all 72 of them.
- Joker Displays that I've framed and put on the wall.
- My inquiry into the emergence of the joker in the 1860 and 70s in the USA. Also, my Old American Jokers Organized by Publisher. Eg Perfection, Dougherty , ARRCO, or Standard.
- I'm particularly focused on the Matching Jokers by Congress, published 1898-1904.
- The Mechanics of my Joker Collecting
- Other joker collectors that I've met f2f: Dan Nordquist ; Joop, Fred, Ronald, and Jelle, and a bit about me. And an article about attending the 2023 52PlusJoker Conference in Cleveland and the 2024 in Niagara Falls.
- Portrayals of African Americans on Playing Cards and Rory
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