Karata playing cards
Karata playing cards produced in Nairobi, c. 1970.
This pack of rare cards was printed by Colourprint Ltd. for Ines May-Publicity, Nairobi, c. 1970. The cards are not laminated and feature Kenyan natives on the court cards and Jokers. Karata appears to be a card game commonly played in Kenya.
Above: The deck has 52 suited cards, including a beautiful Ace of Spades, plus 2 [identical] Jokers. The cards are slightly large bridge size, measuring 91mm x 59mm.
Another pack with identical courts and jokers, but with a different reverse and a smooth finish was published by the East African Wild Life Society, Nairobi.
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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