Carte Romantiche Italiane
Scenes of life and the theatre in Milan towards the second half of the 19th century.
Published by Edizioni del Solleone, Lissone in 1984, this pack of Romantic Italian Cards is sub-titled “scene di vita e di teatro a Milano verso la seconda metà del 19o sec”. The scenes depicted are by an anonymous artist ca. 1870 and in order to accommodate these artistic scenes, the pips are arranged creatively in or around the images on the cards. The pack was published in a limited numbered edition, with this being number 621 of 999 copies. There are 52 playing cards plus four jokers. Backs are a plain blue with “Arienti Solleone Carte Lissone 1984” stamped at the bottom. The cards have a wrap-around piece of card that then slips into the outer case. See the box
Above: Carte Romantiche Italiane published by Edizioni del Solleone, Lissone, 1984. 52 cards plus four jokers.
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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