Through Time: Vintage Playing Card Accessories

by Alex J Coyne © Gifts for Card Plalyers

Who doesn’t love a great card room – with suitable accessories? 

If you’re setting up a place to play cards (or know someone who is), then you know it’s not just about the card decks. 

Playing card accessories can also include: card tables, pencils, trump markers, or playing card boxes.

We’ve put together this list of some great vintage playing card accessories and where to find them. Note, if the link is Amazon, it will include our ‘affiliate’ number. Thank you for your support. We do not affiliate with any other shops at this time.

Vintage Card Tables

Depending on your budget or space constraints, a table could be the perfect purchase for any card room. Made to be specifically suited to card games, “card tables” are appropriately sized – and of course, don’t contain any hidden compartments just in case.

(Let’s not forget that people thought it used to be a great idea to install small handguns directly into their writing desks.)

If you’re looking for a real vintage card table, it’s worth shopping around for one. 

Here are three sites and their search results for card tables just to get you started:

• eBay: “Antique card game tables”
• Etsy: “Antique wood card table”
• Pamono: “Antique game tables”

If that’s out of your budget, don’t worry – Baron Barclay has you covered with more options at this link. There’s also bridge-tables.co.uk, or a wealth of different options on good ol’ Amazon.

Vintage Card-Themed Posters

Posters are great for any card room setup – and fantastic when you don’t want to put a massive starting budget into decorating. They can be anything you want them to be: classic, quirky, dead serious, or funny. Here are a few resources:

Antique Cards Wall Plaques on our Novelties page

Norman Rockwell’s Bridge Game Poster

And of course, there’s the famous Dogs Playing Poker posters which you can find on Amazon. Read about the history of these images in our article here.

AllPosters.com, etsy.com and Art.com are three well known website resources for card-themed posters and prints. 

Pencil Sets

Pencils are a must-have at any card game … unless you’re playing electronically, that’s how people used to keep score of things. Just kidding: we know you’re still supposed to keep your own scores today too.

If you’re a regular player, it can feel like a special ritual getting out the bridge pencils.

Look for “New Old Stock” (NOS) factory-sealed pencils on Ebay. This will give you a good selection!

Usually these vintage card-game pencils are shorter and marked with suits or different colors… well, because how else would you tell them apart from your regular drawing or writing pencils?

London Fine Antiques has this particular listing of “Mid 20th Century Bridge Pencils” for £985.00 GBP.

Er … if that’s out of your budget, you can also find these 1930s Bridge/Canasta Pencil Sets from Hoyle’s Oxford. 

From the description: “Set of four vintage propelling pencils from 1930s Burnham of London, designed for bridge and canasta players. Each pencil measures approximately 2.5 inches with marbled plastic barrels in grey, red, green, and blue.”

Cool!

Trump Markers

Trump makers are used to indicate (and well, mark) the trumps for the game.

Of course they don’t just mark out the trump suit. They can also be quirky, fun, interesting and collectible.

Hoyle’s Oxford has these 1930s celluloid trump markers (over here) that also allowed players to track the amount of points and games. Antiques Boutique has these vintage ones made from brass – though you are advised to watch listings like these if you’re looking for something individual since they can sell out fast!

RubyLane is an online “curated marketplace” for vintage items and antiques that could also point you in the direction of the right purchase. Click to see their listings, for example, for “trump markers.”

Be sure to read “Get your Trump Markers Here” on Great Bridge Links for more good stories and sources.

Peter Dunn’s Bridge Ephemera

No exploration of bridge collectibles and ephemera is complete without a visit to Peter Dunn’s website. So many wonderful trump indicators (and lots of other stuff too). You can purchase directly from Peter using PayPal or a credit card.

The Joan Schepps Collection of Trump Indicators

The Joan Schepps Collection of Trump Indicators is the largest collection of its sort in the United States, currently under care of the Foundation for the Preservation and Advancement of Bridge (FPAB). It contains more than 650 pieces, including some made from porcelain, Bakelite and even silver, and can be seen at the ACBL Museum in Memphis.

Playing Card Boxes

Playing card boxes serve a practical point: they make us feel cooler whenever we have to get to our playing cards … and of course they also protect your cards from light, moisture, hard knocks, and loud noises. 

Like trump markers, they can be standard, quirky, or strange.

If you’re looking for vintage or vintage-inspired playing card boxes, good places to go are:

• Chairish.com (antiques)
• 1stDibs.com (antiques)
• Peter Dunn’s Bridge Ephemera (link above)

There’s a lot out there from the most simple card boxes to very (and that’s very) elaborate ones. Here’s what you’ll get during a sample etsy search for ‘antique playing card case’.

If you love your playing cards, you’ve got to make sure they’re kept safe!