Playing Cards
Pinnacle
The Queen’s Binding
9781439796702
- Standard poker deck of 52 playing cards, 2 joker cards and 1 design story card
- High-quality, 300 gsm card stock
- Performance coating for a smooth finish
- Borderless back card design with perfectly mirrored imagery
- Customized face cards featuring Paperblanks branded design elements
- Full-colour printing with metallic inks on the back card design
- Shrink-wrapped deck to protect from moisture
- Durable tuck box luxuriously accented with metallic foil and embossed texturing, sealed with a custom-branded seal
Nobility and grace are restored in this filigreed design. Originally crafted by the Queens’ Binder “A,” one of the most prolific binders of the Restoration period, the balance of open space and intricate elements makes it a shining jewel of the period.
The Queens’ Binder was a name given to a small group of English craftsmen during the “Golden Age of English Bookbinding.” They were best known for their unique pointillé outlines. The binding reproduced here was designed to hold Richard Allestree’s The Government of the Tongue. As provost of Eton College, Allestree was an esteemed clergyman and royalist, and it is no surprise that the Queens’ Binder was commissioned to bind his work.
Modern research indicates that the Queens’ Binder was in fact four distinct shops, and even individual binders such as “A” could refer to multiple artisans. While the name of the binder called “A” is not known, there is no doubt as to the regency of this gilt binding, which is now a part of the Henry Davis gift at the British Library.