Lo Cartescacco / Chess playing cards
Playing cards designed by F. Romagnoli bringing together Chess and Bridge, Italy, c. 1981.
Designed by Franco Romagnoli with the collaboration of M. Chiarenza and A. Reccagni, this pack is intended to bring together and celebrate the two most fascinating games in the world – chess and bridge. It was printed by La Milano c. 1981.
The 2-9 pip cards have a chess pawn in the lower half and a miniature playing card indicating its denomination in the top right-hand corner. The 10s replace the pawn with a knight. The aces and court cards do not display a miniature card but enlarged chess pieces: aces display the rook or castle; kings display kings, and queens - the queens; the jacks present the bishop. There are two jokers and two extra cards which describe the pack. See the box
Above: Lo Cartescacco playing cards designed by F. Romagnoli bringing together Chess and Bridge, Italy, c. 1981. Printed by La Milano c. 1981.
By Peter Burnett
United Kingdom • 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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