Birds of Southern Africa
Sapra Studio Original playing cards beautifully illustrated with birds of Southern Africa.
This plastic coated 54 card pack includes two Jokers – a Red Joker and a Black Joker. Each colourful card displays as many as three different birds native to Southern Africa. It was published by Sapra Studio, Nairobi, Kenya but was probably printed by Modiano of Italy. The double ended reverse portrays flamingos.
Above: Sapra Studio Original playing cards featuring birds of Southern Africa. The artist is not known.
By Peter Burnett
United Kingdom • Member since July 27, 2022 • Contact
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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