Cryptozoic Entertainment has announced plans to release a new trading card series based on the award-winning British television series Downton Abbey.  The first set will be based on the first two seasons of the Emmy and Golden Globe winning period drama.
 
Downton Abbey Trading Cards Seasons 1 & 2 includes a 108 card base set, as well as sketch cards featuring the characters’ likenesses, wardrobe cards with swatches from the period-authentic costumes, and autograph cards from the cast.  
 
Chase card sets will include Upstairs character biographies, Downtairs character biographies, and At War cards (all 2:24).  It will also include a "mini chase card frame," stylized after the popular cigarette cards of the Victorian and Edwardian eras. 
 
Cryptozoic plans to release the set in Q4 of 2013.  MSRP is $3.50 a pack, or $84.00 a box.  There will be 5 cards per pack, 24 packs per box.
 
"We're working hard to make sure our trading cards are something fans of the show will love, and we're pulling out all the stops in making this collection resonate with the period from the show," said Miranda Charsky, trading card brand manager at Cryptozoic Entertainment.
 
Downton Abbey is broadcast in primetime in the U.S. on PBS/Masterpiece, and is licensed to more than 200 other territories around the world.  The season finale of the third season (February 17, 2013) earned an 8.1 rating, topping everything else on broadcast or cable television that night--an unusual draw for PBS.  The fourth season will premiere in the U.S. in January 2014.