Shuffled Symphonies Card Game, circa 1938

Manufactured in England by Pepys (Castell Brothers), "Shuffled Symphonies" is a card game with rules similar to War or Beggar-My-Neighbour. The vintage deck first dates from circa 1938 and features 24 engaging illustrations of Walt Disney characters including Snow White and Dopey.

Card #1 from personal collection.

Also included in the 45 card deck are images of Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, The Three Little Pigs, The Big Bad Wolf, Elmer the Elephant and others.

Deck image via The Toy Cabin.

The reverse side of each shows Mickey in a top hat and tails shuffling cards over his head. The card backs are either red or blue depending on the deck you have. The copyright label reads, "By permission of Walt Disney - Mickey Mouse Ltd. & Mickey Mouse Weekly." Card measure approximately 2.25" x 3.5" with round corners.

Red Back

Blue Back

Box front...

Box image via Heritage Auctions.

Box backs...

Box Back images via Fan Tan at BoardGameGeek.

Rules booklet...

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The Mickey Mouse Weekly is mentioned on the backside of each card. This refers to the Disney comic/magazine that was first launched in Britain in 1936 (the American version started in 1929). The ad below for the "Shuffled Symphonies" appeared on the back cover of the Mickey Mouse Holiday Special (previous post), a 1938-39 publication by the same London publisher of the Mickey Mouse Weekly.

Shuffled Symphonies Ad in the British Mickey Mouse Holiday Special, 1938/39. Image via Hake's.

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Pears Ltd. of England, manufacturers of fine soap, struck up a promotional deal with Disney during this period to offer a free set of the Shuffled Symphonies to customers who purchased a soap gift box. The special package contained two sixpenny cakes of Pears Golden Glory soap and the deck of free cards.

A "Pears and Snow White" flyer, which promoted the free deck with the gift set, was included in all the standard boxes of Golden Glory soap. The rules booklets which came with the card decks themselves also contained a Pears ad. On the backside, it read "Snow White--fairest of them all--recommends Pears."

Pears soap box with flyer (left); playing card rules booklet (right).

"Mirror, Mirror On The Wall" Card Game

This 1993 Snow White "Mirror, Mirror on the Wall" card game was manufactured by Parker Brothers and licensed by the Walt Disney Company. For 2 to 4 players ages 5 and up, the object is to be the first player to collect one of each dwarf card and the prince in order to break the Queen's spell and wake Snow White.

Card Box

Original packaging. Image via 99marriedmom.

The Dwarf motif used on the card back was commonly employed in a wide array of other Snow White toys and products that year in conjunction with the film's North American theatrical re-release.

Card Back

The deck consists of 55 playing cards: 5 of each Dwarf, 5 Princes, 6 Queens, 8 Mirrors, and just 1 Snow White. An additional 5 promo cards for other games were also included in the box.

The winner gets to turn over the Snow White card at game's end and wake the Princess.

Rules Sheet

Promo Cards for other games

Original 1938 Snow White Card Game by Castell

One of my all time favorite renderings of Snow White!

This beautifully illustrated Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs card game was part of something called the Pepys Series. Published in 1938 by Castell Brothers Ltd. (United Kingdom), individual cards are copyright marked with "BY PERMISSION WALT DISNEY, MICKEY MOUSE LTD." (Measure 3 1/2" x 2 1/4".)

A red tinted Snow White graces the back of each as she looks down into the Wishing Well...

Back of Card

The game consists of four suits: circles, stars, diamonds, and squares...

The complete set is made up of 45 cards. Numbers 1-7 appear in all four suits...

 

Card number 8 is divided between Bashful and Happy...

 

To avoid confusion with the 6 card, the manufacturer did not create one for number 9. Instead, they skipped to the 10 card which is shared between Doc and Dopey while Grumpy and Sneezy occupy number 11...

 

 

Just two suits were created for number 12 which features Sleepy...

And the Witch card, number 13, has only three suits (no diamond card)...

 

The game is played similar to Hearts where at the end of each round, the remaining Star cards and Witches in hand must be added to your score. The player with the lowest points at the end of the game is the winner.

Rule booklet...

 

 

 

Box...