Playing Cards from Mauritius

This pack has no title but was designed for La Maison de L’Artisanat Ltée, Mauritius, by Hervé de Cotter. The cards were manufactured by Mauritius Stationery Manufacturers Ltd, Plaine Lauzun, Port Louis, Mauritius. The date is unknown.

Unfortunately, there is nothing to indicate what is being represented on the cards. The court cards and Joker are double-ended but have slightly different designs at each end. The black-suit courts have red backgrounds and black borders with the K, Q and J picked out in red. The red-suit courts have black backgrounds and red borders with the K, Q and J picked out in black. The central pips on the Aces are decorated. Curiously, the Aces (marked ‘1’ rather than ‘A’) and the numeral cards have indices top right and not top left. The 10 of Spades has the two sets of five pips the wrong way up! A stylised dodo is featured in the back design. The text on the box is partly in English, partly in French. See the box►

Above: pack designed for La Maison de L’Artisanat Ltée, Mauritius, by Hervé de Cotter. 52 cards + 2 Jokers in a tuck box. Possibly the numeral cards were delegated to an assistant who put the indices on the wrong side. There is also a red version of the back design.

By Roddy Somerville

Member since May 31, 2022

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Roddy started collecting stamps on his 8th birthday. In 1977 he joined the newly formed playing-card department at Stanley Gibbons in London before setting up his own business in Edinburgh four years later. His collecting interests include playing cards, postcards, stamps (especially playing cards on stamps) and sugar wrappers. He is a Past President of the Scottish Philatelic Society, a former Chairman of the IPCS, a Past Master of the Worshipful Company of Makers of Playing Cards and Curator of the WCMPC’s collection of playing cards. He lives near Toulouse in France.