Vaivorykštė

Historic, hand-drawn Lithuanian Playing Cards from 1933

During the interwar period (1919 – 1938) the Lithuanian government held a competition, where the best artists competed to draw a beautiful, symbolic deck of cards. “Vaivorykštė” (Rainbow) 🌈   is thought to be one of the winning decks.

These beautiful cards were used as a state symbol and include patterns that are common in Lithuanian Folk Art.

The deck is called “Vaivorykštė”, which in Lithuanian means “Rainbow” 🌈 – you probably can see the reason for the name 🙂. Every card is exploding with colors and features intricate hand-drawn ornaments.

If you look closely you will see that the color of the rim is different for each of the suits, which truly makes the deck look like a rainbow.

The cards were hand-drawn by a famous Lithuanian-Russian artist Mstislav Dobuzhinsky, who is known for his cityscapes conveying the explosive growth and decay of the early twentieth-century city.

• Printed by UNITED STATES PLAYING CARD COMPANY
• Poker Size
•  Air Cushion Embossed Card Finish
• Premium Casino Grade Paper Stock
•  Authentic design adapted for poker size

A year ago I fell in love with historic Lithuanian cards, however, only few decks remain and they are impossible to get. Thus, I decided to revive these beautiful cards – to track down the few remaining copies and reprint them.

Last year thanks to the Kickstarter community and hundreds of backers we have successfully reprinted a deck called “Columns of Gediminas”. After the campaign, many of the backers were asking for one more deck, and, in particular, they were asking for “Vaivorykste” – one of the most beautiful historic Lithuanian decks.

I have started looking for this deck and after several months of search learned that one of the copies is stored in the archives of the National Museum of M.K. Čiurlionis. I have contacted the museum and thankfully they have agreed to share the cards.

Thanks to more than 300 people support via Kickstarter the cards got reprinted 🙂

• Delivery times:
  • Lithuania: about 2-3 weeks.
  • USA: about 2-3 weeks.
  • Rest of the world: about 4-6 weeks.

  Due to the pandemic, there might be some delays