Dielo playing cards
Heroic Socialist-style version of the Four Seasons pattern from Bratislava.
Perhaps more than other regional patterns, Four Seasons pattern packs lend themselves to being modified. This one is very definitely a product of its time. In 1957, Czechoslovakia was a Socialist Republic, whose ideals and values are clearly represented here. Heroic workers and peasants on the Obers and Unters sit alongside female representations of the four seasons in their folkloric costumes with titles in Slovak. Meanwhile, the Kings are nothing more than caricatures, with their silly noses and – in one case – a ridiculously long moustache. The publisher’s name can be found on the 7 of Bells, with various small vignettes on the other numeral cards.
Above: ‘Four Seasons’ pattern made in Czechoslovakia by Obchodni Tiskárny, Prague, 1957. 32 cards in tuck box. Size: 64 x 105 mm.
It is mentioned on the box that these cards are suitable for playing Mariáš, one of the most popular card games in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
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By Roddy Somerville
France • Member since May 31, 2022
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.
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