Le Carte di Forattini
Political caricatures by Giorgio Forattini published by Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, Italy, 1993.
Produced in 1993 by Modiano this pack was designed by Giorgio Forattini for Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, the largest publishing company in Italy, for inclusion in Panorama, a weekly news magazine published in Milan. An earlier pack for this magazine was published in 1979.
Forattini (b. 1931) is an Italian editorial cartoonist, caricaturist and illustrator, and according to Wikipedia comments "with a corrosive and irreverent humor, the events of Italian and international political life". This is certainly apparent in this political pack which depicts, in an unflattering light, the leading Italian political figures of the day, including Francesco Cossiga (President of Italy, 1985-1992), Gianni Agnelli, Oscar Luigi Scalfaro (President of Italy, 1992-1999), Giulio Andreotti (Prime Minister, 1989-1992), Giovanni Spadolini (President of the Senate 1987-1994), and many others. There are two “Jolly Jokers” and one extra card with Forattini’s signature. The back of the card confirms the pack’s commission from Panorama. The caricature on the box is of the artist himself - Forattini - brandishing a large pencil
Above: Political caricatures by Giorgio Forattini, published by Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, Italy, 1993.
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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