Gibert Jeune (Molière)
Pack offered by the Parisian bookshop Gibert Jeune on the tricentenary of Molière’s death.
Only two years after James Hodges’ pack for the same Parisian bookshop, Gibert Jeune had this pack made to offer to its customers, marking the tricentenary of the death of the French playwright Molière. One is immediately struck by the olive-green backgrounds used throughout, the ‘pinkness’ of the red suit-signs, and the abundance of floral decoration on the courts, aces and jokers. The double-ended court cards represent characters from some of Molière’s most famous works including Tartuffe, Le Misanthrope, Le Bourgeois gentilhomme and Don Juan. Molière himself appears on the reverse, his portrait surrounded by another garland of flowers. As in the Hodges pack (where the information can be found on the reverse), the addresses of Gibert Jeune’s different branches are listed on the jokers and again on one of the extra cards • See the box
Above: Molière tricentenary playing cards published by Gibert Jeune bookshop, made by B.P. Grimaud, Saint-Max, France, 1973. 52 cards + 2 (identical) Jokers + 2 extra cards 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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