Barok playing cards nr 232
Courts dressed in Baroque costumes in a pack printed by KZWP, Kraków, Poland, 1981.
The Baroque style was flamboyant and exuberant, as typified by the court cards in this pack. They are, to use modern parlance, ‘full-on’ and ‘in-your-face’ – so much so that the headgear of several of the courts has been chopped in order to fit the designs on the card. The King of Diamonds looks especially forbidding. The manufacturer’s logo and the date appear on the Ace of Hearts. The Joker is a full-length jester in a fiery red and orange costume. The indices are in Polish (K, D, W, A). See the box►


Above: ‘Barok’ playing cards nr 232 printed by KZWP, Kraków, Poland, 1981. 52 cards + 2 Jokers in a cardboard ‘book-type’ container made to hold two packs. Size: 64 x 92.5 mm.

By Roddy Somerville
Member since May 31, 2022
Roddy started collecting stamps on his 8th birthday. In 1977 he joined the newly formed playing-card department at Stanley Gibbons in London before setting up his own business in Edinburgh four years later. His collecting interests include playing cards, postcards, stamps (especially playing cards on stamps) and sugar wrappers. He is a Past President of the Scottish Philatelic Society, a former Chairman of the IPCS, a Past Master of the Worshipful Company of Makers of Playing Cards and Curator of the WCMPC’s collection of playing cards. He lives near Toulouse in France.
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