Caspari Playing Cards – Chinese Wallpaper

Description

Caspari Playing Cards – Chinese Wallpaper

Chinese Wallpaper is a beautiful, intricate and ornate design from Caspari, and a very popular choice.  Using the Simon Lucas Bridge Supplies card rating scale, the cards are Standard Quality, and are smartly packaged in a gold presentation box. The cards have standard 4-index faces, and the deck contains 52 cards plus 2 jokers.

About Chinese Wallpaper

Chinese Wallpaper has a fascinating history in Europe. This is an extract taken from the article Chinese Wallpaper Case Study on the website East India Company at Home, 1757-1857:

“At all stages of its existence Chinese wallpaper has proved elusive. Although the Chinese pioneered the making of paper, c.105 AD they did not use the panoramic wallpaper as we know it in the West in their homes. It was designed as a European commodity. We know surprisingly little about Chinese craftsmen’s use of plain, coloured and patterned paper in the design of their intricate interiors. In 1664 when John Evelyn described the Chinese goods brought back by a Jesuit on return from China, he admired ‘a sort of paper … with such lively colours, that for splendour and vividness we have nothing in Europe that approaches it … [it is], exceeding glorious to look on’.

It is likely that the Chinese wallpapers we know in the West originated from the less familiar wall decorations on paper created in China especially for export to Europe. Chinese pictures were imported in small quantities first by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century, and then into France by Dutch traders, towards the end of the seventeenth century. The earliest precise reference to the import of graphic art from China to England is 1727. There is a detailed description of these pictures by Robert Fortune (1812-1880), the plant hunter who found time during his travels in China to observe in the house of a mandarin of Tsee-kee, ‘a nicely furnished room according to Chinese ideas, that is, its walls were hung with pictures of flowers, birds, and scenes of Chinese life.”

The article goes on to describe how the wallpaper was made in a highly organised production line of artisan workers, and that it was so costly to purchase that when it was removed from the walls of English homes, it was carefully put into storage until it was needed again to decorate another room.

The Chinese Wallpaper playing cards from Caspari feature two beautiful designs.

About Caspari

Caspari is a publisher of exquisitely designed and printed paper products, with a reputation earned over seven decades by reproducing the work of established artists and museums from around the world. Originally importing Christmas cards by European artists, Caspari has now expanded to include over 30 different product categories. While the company has grown considerably since 1945, it continues to work with the same European printers and suppliers who originally collaborated with H. George Caspari. Current owner Douglas Stevens and president Lisa Milbank maintain Mr. Caspari’s commitment to fine art and his philosophy of presenting work from classic museum collections and contemporary artists. Caspari products are inspired by museum collections such as the Musee de l’Impression sur Etoffes, The National Gallery, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Williamsburg, The Royal Horticultural Society and the New York Botanical Gardens as well as outstanding private collections and archives. Artists from around the world partner with Caspari to create a portfolio that represents an international approach to design In 2001, Caspari opened its first boutique at 7 rue Jacob in Paris and in November of 2005, Caspari opened in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Caspari is committed to producing our products with the use of environmentally responsible raw materials and processes.