SCOR playing cards
Bizarre and fantastical images by the artist Roland Topor for the SCOR reinsurance company.
To illustrate their annual report for 1988, the reinsurance company SCOR commissioned the artist Roland Topor (1938-1997) to come up with images reflecting various activities involving risk. The results can be seen on the court cards and aces in this pack where Topor’s black and surrealist humour is evident in the bizarre, fantastical and often absurd images of risky situations. The setting for those situations is frequently the stage, as that was a milieu with which Topor was certainly familiar. Quite a bold commission from a reinsurance company! See the box
Above: SCOR playing cards designed by Roland Topor, made by Héron S.A. for the SCOR reinsurance company, France, 1988. 52 cards + 2 Jokers + 1 bridge score card in tuck box. Size: 63 x 88 mm.
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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