Naipes Barcelonesa by Vigor S.R.L., Bs As, 1960

Naipes BARCELONESA Spanish-suited playing cards manufactured by Vigor S.R.L., Buenos Aires, 1955-75

Naipes Barcelonesa was one of Vigor's leading brand of Spanish-suited playing cards, alongside Naipes La Estrella, Chinita and La Española. The logo on the four of cups and the wrapper shows folk dancers with the legend 'Barcelonesa'.

The Patent Office Registration documents, dated 22nd June 1955, show the original designs with the new company name overwritten. By holding these up to the light, we can read beneath the name of Igor Domicelj (c.1950-55), the company's predecessor. The same applies to the Registration documents for "Naipes Chin-Chun", a 50-card version of Naipes Barcelonesa for the game Chin-Chun, and "Naipes Golfo", a 48-card version for the game Golfo, which are also dated 1955.

← Left: box and four of cups from Naipes Barcelonesa manufactured by Vigor S.R.L. c.1960. Right: detail of the four of cups. The capital value of the company is quoted as $ 2,000,000 pesos. Below: similar example of Naipes Barcelonesa, c.1960.

The card designs are based on those of Segundo de Olea (Spain) which had been imported into Argentina since the 19th century. The brand and designs are used in cards published today by Gráfica 2001 / Naipes La Española.

By Simon Wintle

Member since February 01, 1996

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Curator and editor of the World of Playing Cards since 1996. He is a former committee member of the IPCS and was graphics editor of The Playing-Card journal for many years. He has lived at various times in Chile, England and Wales and is currently living in Extremadura, Spain. Simon's first limited edition pack of playing cards was a replica of a seventeenth century traditional English pack, which he produced from woodblocks and stencils.