Intersigma

Published April 11, 2025 Updated April 12, 2025

A Czech advertising deck for a company dealing with pump technology.

1991 Czech RepublicAdvertisingEngineeringObchodní Tiskárny

This attractive advertising deck from Czech Republic mimics Renaissance or Baroque poses, giving the cards an artistic and elevated feel. The Kings of Spades and Hearts both hold tridents, referencing Neptune's power over the element of water. Two of the Jacks hold scrolls with the name of the company being advertised and who commissioned the deck. Each Ace contains a small face. The illustrations use bold colours, especially red, blue, yellow and sea-green. The reverse of the cards is a design featuring Neptune and a mermaid with the legend ‘Intersigma’.

Intersigna advertising playing cards made by Obchodní tiskárny a.s., Kolín, 1991 Intersigna advertising playing cards made by Obchodní tiskárny a.s., Kolín, 1991

Above: Intersigna advertising playing cards made by Obchodní tiskárny a.s., Kolín, 1991. 52 cards + 2 jokers, 57x87 mm.

Notes from Marek Brejcha

This is an advertising deck for a company dealing with pump technology. According to the name INTERSIGMA, I estimate that it was a subsidiary of SIGMA, which dealt with related international trade. The company's trademark is part of the cards and has evidently also been incorporated into the attributes of kings. The SIGMA company is still in business today and produces pumps. See : www.sigmagroup.cz/historie/

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By Jon Randall

Australia • Member since May 28, 2020 • Contact

From 6 or 7 years of age I enjoyed playing cards with my family, and still enjoy a variety of games today with various groups and individuals. I contribute my competitive nature to enjoying games … it’s not that I like to win, I dislike losing! I was barely 10 years old when my great Uncle left me a small collection of playing cards and that was the starting point of my collecting. The competitive streak in me helped develop me into a competitive swimmer that sent me to various places around the world, including a 6 year stint in the US, where for much of that time I was at university. I’ve always enjoyed car boots flea markets, yard sales, charity shops etc., and my eye would never miss a pack of playing cards. Even after my swimming career finished I coached at a high level for many years and continued enjoying the discovery of some great finds around the world. For decades my collection continued to grow, despite selling a portion of it via eBay over the years. It wasn’t until post 2010 that I realised, mostly due to correspondence with Australian friends, that there were so many single playing card collectors. This intrigued me. I had so many packs of cards at home that I made the bold decision to share a good number with singles collectors, and subsequently listed around 7000 for sale on eBay. That did make a dent in my collection, but there’s still around 30,000 packs taking up quite a bit of space at home. Crazy? Yes, but I’ve seen bigger hoards a few times! There’s so many I surprise myself finding packs I forgot I had when I look in a box I’d not seen in a while.

My eBay IDs if you’d like to look are “worldwide_playing_cards” & “playing_cards_world

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