# 4333l - 2008 42c Eames, Intersecting Rectangles

U.S. #4333l
Charles and Ray Eames
House of Cards

Issue Date: June 17, 2008
City: Santa Monica, CA

With the same attention to detail they applied to everything they designed, in 1952 the Eameses created a children’s toy they called the House of Cards. 

Designed with six slots, each card in the House of Cards could be connected to make different fanciful shaped constructions.  In addition, cards were flexible enough so constructions could contain curves and arches as well as corners.  The orignal House of Cards consisted of two decks, a picture deck and a pattern deck.  The picture deck featured what the Eameses called the “good stuff.”  Its cards were decorated with brightly colored objects from the “animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms.”  The pattern deck included a colorful variety of shapes and patterns. 

Using the slotted design of the original set, four more decks were created.  One, the Computer House of Cards, was designed for the 1970 World’s Fair in Japan.  It featured images of modern computers before the microchip.  Three of the House of Cards sets are available today.

In 2008, the Eames House of Cards was featured on a 42¢ stamp, one of a pane of 16 issued by the U.S. Postal Service to honor the contributions of Charles and Ray Eames to American Design.