San Paolo Chekhov
Characters from Chekhov’s plays designed by Paolo Fresu for San Paolo Istituto Bancario, Italy, c.1983.
Published in 1983 by Masenghini of Bergamo for San Paolo Istituto Bancario, the Italian bank headquartered in Turin, this pack features characters from the plays of the great Russian playwright Anton Chekhov on the court cards, aces, and jokers. Each suit is devoted to a particular play: spades to Uncle Vanya; hearts to The Three Sisters; clubs to The Cherry Orchard and diamonds to The Seagull. The jokers depict the cook from The Seagull and Telegin from Uncle Vanya. The deck is designed by Paolo Fresu. There are two extra cards, one of which identifies the plays and the second details those involved in the production of the pack. This is one of several produced by Masenghini for the San Paolo bank devoted to individual authors such as Shakespeare, Brecht, and Goldoni.
Above: Characters from Chekhov’s plays on playing cards produced by Masenghini of Bergamo for San Paolo Istituto Bancario, Italy, c.1983.
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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