Cancan
Lightly risqué luxury playing cards published by Éditions Philibert of Paris in 1956.
Éditions Philibert: “Cancan”
These wonderful lightly risqué luxury playing cards, with lots of lace, in the style of the 1900s, were designed by Pierre Albarran, drawn by Monique Arietti (pseudonym of Gabriel Garachon, designer at Draeger Frères who printed the cards, and herself a dancer) and published by Éditions Philibert of Paris in 1956.
See also: Le Florentin • Mémoires de Casanova
Above: lightly risqué “Cancan” luxury playing cards designed by Pierre Albarran and published by Éditions Philibert, 1956. 52 standard cards plus two Jokers and additional 4 Aces + 2 title cards. Gilt edges. Images courtesy Barney Townshend.
Above: promotional leaflet for the Cancan pack (undated but presumably c1956). Images courtesy of the WCMPC.
By Barney Townshend
United Kingdom • Member since October 06, 2015
Retired Airline Pilot, interested in: Transformation Playing Cards, Karl Gerich and Elaine Lewis. Secretary of the EPCS. Treasurer of the IPCS.
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Stefan Lauwers
19 January 2023, 14:37Can-can was designed by Pierre Albarran, the world-famous bridge- (and tennis) player. Pierre Albarran played two times in the Davis Cup tennis-team for France, and won a bronze medal in the Antwerp summer olympics in 1920 (in doubles), but he became much better known as a contract bridge player. At Bridge, he was French champion 19 times (!!!) and played in 32 international matches for France ... For many years, he organized and directed the annual bridge tournament held in Monte Carlo. He ranking first in the 1935 Brussels World-tounament for teams. He was a columnist on bridge for several French newspapers and authored several books on bridge. Perre Albarran was referred to as 'The Aristocrat of Bridge'. He died on 24 February 1960, at the age of 66. Pierre Albarran's biggest contribution to the game of Bridge is a theory for a bidding systems that includes the 'Canapé approach' and the convention that was later called "Roman two-suiter". And of course he has designed this beautiful 'Can-can'-deck. His technique in Bridge was to sometimes also bid on hands that he could not really win, thus surprising the adversaries and nevertheless winning the hand, which led him to the famous expression : "A pokerface is not limited to the only game of Poker ..." Further information on Pierre Albarran can easely be found on wikipedia, or any website dedicated to Bridge.
Peter Burnett
19 November 2025, 09:47SavedSaved this article to Peter's Collection