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Kalevala Playing Cards USPCC

$14.99 USD
 per 
View full details

Kalevala Playing Cards USPCC

$14.99 USD
 per 

Kalevala Playing Cards

My name is Sunish Chabba, and I, along with my friend & illustrator, Ishan Trivedi, welcome you to the world of the Kalevala.  The Kalevala Playing Cards is a 100% hand-drawn, custom deck & is based on the 19th Century epic poem of Finland & Karelia, Kalevala, compiled by Elias Lönnrot.  J.R.R.Tolkein used the Kalevala as a model when he created the Silmarillion mythology for The Lord of the Rings.  The Kalevala Playing Cards depict the heroes and villains of the Kalevala. The Kalevala Playing Cards tells the tale of a number of characters as depicted in the court cards of this deck.

Features:  

  • 100% custom and hand-drawn artwork
  • Premium Stock (Bee Casino Grade stock which is the highest quality card stock available @ USPCC)
  • Embossed linen air cushion finish 
  • Poker Size (3.5" X 2.5")
  • 52 Cards + 2 Jokers + 1 extra card (with names of characters on court cards)
  • Custom tuck case with hand-drawn artwork
  • Made in USA by the United States Playing Card Company (USPCC)
  • 2018 Release

Customer Reviews

Based on 2 reviews
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H
Herumen
Classic Folklore Illustration

As a fan of card decks based on mythology/folklore, this deck is a must-have for its theme, if not entirely its design. Everything is custom--pips, numbers, aces, face cards, tuck box--which is nice. Numbers & pips are in traditional black & red on an antiqued parchment background. I usually find this kind of background to be a bit contrived in card decks in general, but at least here it is not too overpowering. The pips are (almost comically) oversized, except at the corners, where they are noticeably undersized. All four aces are custom but, frankly, nothing spectacular. The tuck box, too, though it features custom art, is rather plain. The real allure of this deck, however, is the face cards & jokers. These unique illustrations of figures from the Kalevala are fantastic and perfectly evoke classic turn-of-the-century fairy tale illustration, rather than the somewhat comic fantasy illustration of some other similarly-themed decks. The deck also includes 2 different jokers, a double-backer, and a guide card to the mythological figures pictured. Notably, of the handful of retailers I purchase from regularly, Playing Card Decks is the only one who carries this deck at the time of this writing.

T
Tanya Hakala
Beautiful artwork

The Kalevala holds a special place in my Finnish ancestry heart. These cards do not disappoint. The sepia and black tones evoke times past where these drawings could have been done on parchment or burned into wood. The illustrations of each figure from the epic tale are beautifully detailed on the face cards.

The numbers in the corners are quite small, so if your vision is fading, these may not be the deck you will regularly grab for. That said, the font for the numbers is unique, but very clear to read, despite its smaller size.

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