Napoleonské karty
“Napoleonské karty” from the Czech Republic portraying monarchs and emperors.
This is a 32-card German-suited pack enriched with single-headed figures from the Napoleonic period -- monarchs of France, Russia, Germany and Austria-Hungary, officers and soldiers, equipment and armament, orders and awards, monuments and barrows. The suit of acorns represents Austria; leaves – Prussia; hearts – Russia; bells – France. The aces portray the country monarchs or Emperors; kings – the generals or marshals. The queens (Ober) and jacks (Unter) show riflemen, a bugler, drummer and cavalrymen. The lower denominations show medals, armaments, or monuments.
The pack was published in 2004 by Akord. The artist was Jan Hora and the designer Zdeněk Plíhal. The pack has an accompanying legend in Czech which explains the subject of each card. See the box & legend►
By Peter Burnett
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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