Lorenzo Gaggiotti (Stockholm17) started his third playing card project on Kickstarter. This deck, Bicycle №17 Playing Cards, is full of art and imagination as his previous two decks, Requiem Playing Cards and Heretic Playing Cards. Playing cards traditionally have a lot of hidden details, inscriptions, and meanings.

“There is no specific theme in this deck, it´s quite eclectic and I let my fantasy run when I illustrated the courts. The diamonds have clearly an Egyptian resemblance, but overall they belong to a parallel world. There is a thing that connects all the court cards: the text circling the background is a part of the Aeneid, a Latin epic poem written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who traveled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans.” ~ Lorenzo Gaggiotti

There will be five different decks in this No. 17 series. The Bicycle and Unbranded No. 17 decks are planned to be printed by the United States Playing Card Company (USPCC).

Publius Vergilius Maro (October 15, 70 BC – September 21, 19 BC), also called Virgil, is ranked as one of Rome’s greatest poets. Aeneid is one of his three major works (is widely considered the finest one) of Latin literature. It is composed of 9,896 lines in dactylic hexameter (the Grand Style of classical poetry). The literary work can be divided into two halves based on the disparate subject matter of Books 1–6 (Aeneas’s journey to Latium in Italy) and Books 7–12 (the war in Latium).

Aeneid has been considered the national epic of ancient Rome from the time of its composition to the present day. It also seriously influenced Western literature. Dante Alighieri (a major Italian poet of the late Middle Ages) even made its author Dante’s guide through hell and purgatory in The Divine Comedy. Lorenzo has Italian roots, so no wonder that he paid his attention to lines of Aeneid.

By the way, there are strong opinions that Aeneid’s two halves are reflecting Virgil’s ambition to rival Homer (author of the first known literature of Europe) by treating both the Odyssey’s wandering theme and the Iliad’s warfare themes. Well, Lorenzo definitely doesn’t try to rival any other deck of playing cards.

No. 17 Playing Cards by Stockholm17

The main two decks in this No.17 “series” are: Bicycle No. 17 Playing Cards and No. 17 (unbranded) Playing Cards.

No. 17 Playing Cards – Bicycle and Unbranded: Back Design of Tuck Cases and Cards

Bicycle No. 17 decks:

• 12 hand-drawn illustrated courts (JQK);
• 4 big decorated aces;
• Custom pip layout (2 to 10);
• 3 jokers (3rd joker is a mystery);
• 1 gaff card (double back);
• Bicycle® paper stock;
• Custom tuck-case with embossing;
• Custom seal;
• Poker size;
• Will be printed by USPCC.

Bicycle No. 17 Playing Cards: Custom Seal

Bicycle No. 17 Playing Cards: Back Design

No. 17 decks:

• Same faces as the Bicycle branded decks;
• Original variation of back design – white backs with red accents;
• Original custom tuck case using “Snow White Linen Cover” (linen texture) with red foil and debossing;
• Bicycle® paper stock;
• Poker size;
• Will be printed by USPCC.

No. 17 Playing Cards: Tuck Case

 No. 17 Playing Cards: Back Design

Lorenzo also decided to create a very limited run of his No.17 playing card with handmade tuck cases – No.17 Playing Cards by Stockholm17: Crown Edition. Read about it more on the appropriate Kickstarter page.

You could pledge here: http://kck.st/1Mui65y

[FUNDED – March 19 2015]

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No. 17 Playing Cards: Court Cards

 No. 17 Playing Cards: Uncut Sheet

The designer wanted to thank backers investing essential amounts of money into his project. So, he created some gifts for different pledge sizes. Among such gifts are No. 17 Playing Card Mini and Micro Decks.

No. 17 Playing Cards: Bicycle, Mini and Micro Decks

No. 17 Mini Deck:

• Red back from Bicycle branded deck;
• Custom mini-tuck-case – slightly redesigned unbranded tuck case;
• 270g paper;
• 54 mini-cards – dimension: 44.45mm x 63.5mm (1.75″ x 2.5″);
• Minimum 100 decks;
• Will be printed by Make Playing Cards (MPC).

No. 17 Mini Playing Cards: The Ace of Spades

No. 17 Micro Deck:

• White back from unbranded No.17 deck;
• Custom micro-tuck-case – slightly redesigned unbranded tuck case;
• 270g paper;
• 54 mini-cards with updated design of all faces for 32mm x 45mm (1.25″ x 1.75″) cards;
• Will be printed by Make Playing Cards (MPC).

No. 17 Playing Cards: Mini and Micro Decks