Wednesday 22 May 2019

Four colour cards [3] Guangshui Cards

[four colour cards] Anon, 112c, China
《四色牌》112副
This deck comes from Guangshui, 廣水 a city in Hubei 湖北,

The red and white suits. The first thing to note is the form the characters take. They have become extremely stylized. My transcriptions into standard font are seen below, as well as their English equivalents. As for the Valet and Soldier, I am not certain about their identification, and they may have been transposed. 
The backs of the cards (A) are plain, grey cardboard. Note, that in the white suit the cards have a small tinge of red on their narrow edge. 

The green and Yellow suit. For a comparison, see here,"Hokkien"  "Double Phoenix" and  Singaporean  Cards. 
Note that all the characters in the four suits are identical in this deck. 

The Chinese Wikipedia has an Article about the cards, and the game played with them.