Hello, I'm Gejus van Diggele. Collector, researcher, author, lecturer, curator, moderator. Chairman of the International Playing Card Society.
One fascination: how games and playing cards reflect social history. Two main interests: repurposed playing cards (5,000+, 15th - 21th century), and all kind of games and puzzles from the WW2 era (2,000+, 1923-1947). I love the stories behind cards and games and it's great to try to discover them.
For over 45 years I've worked in marketing communication. Games and cards are a form of communication too. Most repurposed playing cards literally contain some kind of information, for instance a note, invitation, request, invoice, message. Most WW2 games and cards communicate a political message. To better understand the messages it helps if you imagine how life was at the time.
Just an example: an 1800 playing card used by a mother to write a personal note with the baby she left at the gate of an orphanage. To understand why she did that, one has to study the local social and economical circumstances of around 1800. But I'm also interested in the card makers, however if secondary used the playing card side has no longer a meaning. It's just a cheap piece of paper to write on. Different but WW2 games tell a story too. How they were played is less important. I'm interested in why they were played.
If you like to know more or collect the same kind of items please contact me. Or join the Facebook Playing Card Collectors Club where I and others on a daily basis post all kind of cards with an interesting story.
Thanks.