Glico Almond Chocolate

Published August 01, 2023 • Updated August 02, 2023

Glico Almond Chocolate playing cards with designs by Izumi Tamai, produced by Nintendo, Japan.

This advertising pack was made by Nintendo, c. 1967, for the Glico Group, a Japanese confectionery maker, founded c.1920. The figures appearing on the court cards feature charming designs by Japanese artist Izumi Tamai. These designed first appeared in a pack called “Young Men” (see Fournier Museum, Playing Cards, Japan no. 46) and this current pack uses the same designs with slight differences. All the cards have "elongated" letters, suit symbols and elegantly arranged pips arranged in a non-standard pattern. The card reverse shows a smiling young man against a light green background, and the pack has 52 cards, plus 2 Jokers.

Above: Glico Almond Chocolate playing cards with designs by Izumi Tamai and produced by Nintendo, Japan, c. 1967.

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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.

• Russian Playing Cards

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.