Interhotel playing cards
Interhotel playing cards printed by Obchodni Tiskárny (OTK), Prague, and published by the Interhotel chain in 1972.
This 32-card pack was printed by the Obchodni Tiskárny Kolin N.P. (OTK), Prague and published by the Interhotel chain in 1972. It is one of a series of packs produced by the Interhotel chain of hotels between 1958 and 1975 and is German-suited. The Interhotel Group was a part of the State travel agency Čedok until 1990.
Each suit represents a different period. The hearts show how hotels or taverns might have been enjoyed in the days of Charlemagne; bells -- at the time of the Austrian Empire; acorns -- during the Napoleonic period, and leaves -- the modern way of enjoying the hotel in the 1970s. Each card names a different Czechoslovak hotel, bar or restaurant.
Above: Interhotel playing cards printed by the Obchodni Tiskárny Kolin N.P. (OTK), Prague and published by the Interhotel chain in 1972.
By Peter Burnett
United Kingdom • Member since July 27, 2022
I graduated in Russian and East European Studies from Birmingham University in 1969. It was as an undergraduate in Moscow in 1968 that I stumbled upon my first 3 packs of “unusual” playing cards which fired my curiosity and thence my life-long interest. I began researching and collecting cards in the early 1970s, since when I’ve acquired over 3,330 packs of non-standard cards, mainly from North America, UK and Western Europe, and of course from Russia and the former communist countries.
Following my retirement from the Bodleian Library in Dec. 2007 I took up a new role as Head of Library Development at the International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP) to support library development in low-income countries. This work necessitated regular training visits to many sub-Saharan African countries and also further afield, to Vietnam, Nepal and Bangladesh – all of which provided rich opportunities to further expand my playing card collection.
Since 2019 I’ve been working part-time in the Bodleian Library where I’ve been cataloguing the bequest of the late Donald Welsh, founder of the English Playing Card Society.
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