Nintendo was, famously, founded in 1889 as a playing card company.
Sherlock Holmes first appeared in print in 1887. The Island Of Dr. Moreau was published in 1896, and 1897 – a remarkable year for fiction – saw the introduction of Dracula, Cyrano De Bergerac, and The Invisible Man.
So, if you were to paint a picture of these characters sitting around a table playing cards and toasting the turn of the century, not only would it period-accurate for them to all be there using Nintendo-branded cards, it would look like an homage to Cassius Coolidge’s Dogs Playing Poker, first created in 1894.
