Genovesi Pattern

Published March 07, 2017 • Updated July 04, 2023

Genoese pattern from Italy.

The Genoese pattern (along with the Piedmontese) is a French suited design derived from the Paris pattern which had formerly been exported throughout Europe, used widely in casinos. The courts are not named and are divided diagonally with a plain bar. The jack of clubs has a triangular shield bearing the coat of arms of the former Spanish Netherlands. The colouring is often green, gold, red and black instead of the more usual French blue, red and yellow. Genoese packs have either 36, 40 or 52 cards and no corner indices. The pattern is also used in Belgium, so a maker's name helps with identification.

Above: Genoese pattern by Dal Negro, c.1966. The ace of hearts has the tax stamp and the year of production. The 300 Lire tax stamp was in use in Italy from 1954 to 1972, after which date tax stamps were abandoned. See the Box►

Above: Genoese pattern by Modiano, c.1998. All images courtesy Rex Pitts.

775 Articles

By Rex Pitts (1940-2021)

United Kingdom • Member since January 30, 2009

Rex's main interest was in card games, because, he said, they were cheap and easy to get hold of in his early days of collecting. He is well known for his extensive knowledge of Pepys games and his book is on the bookshelves of many. His other interest was non-standard playing cards. He also had collections of sheet music, music CDs, models of London buses, London Transport timetables and maps and other objects that intrigued him.

Rex had a chequered career at school. He was expelled twice, on one occasion for smoking! Despite this he trained as a radio engineer and worked for the BBC in the World Service. Later he moved into sales and worked for a firm that made all kinds of packaging, a job he enjoyed until his retirement. He became an expert on boxes and would always investigate those that held his cards. He could always recognize a box made for Pepys, which were the same as those of Alf Cooke’s Universal Playing Card Company, who printed the card games. This interest changed into an ability to make and mend boxes, which he did with great dexterity. He loved this kind of handicraft work.

His dexterity of hand and eye soon led to his making card games of his own design. He spent hours and hours carefully cutting them out and colouring them by hand.