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Published February 21, 2023 Updated February 21, 2023

Wrocław

Wrocław souvenir playing cards designed by Katarzyna Tomala, 2011.

2011 Poland Cartamundi Poland Katarzyna Tomala Souvenir Add to Collection

The court cards and aces of this pack display delicate and attractive watercolour paintings of historic Wrocław. Descriptions of each building and location are given beneath each painting in Polish, English, German and Russian. Three jokers complete the pack. The artist and designer is Katarzyna Tomala (who was also responsible for the artwork in the Polska pack published in 2011). This pack too was published in 2011 by Cartamundi Poland. See the box

Wrocław souvenir playing cards designed by Katarzyna Tomala, printed by Cartamundi Poland, 2011 Wrocław souvenir playing cards designed by Katarzyna Tomala, printed by Cartamundi Poland, 2011 Wrocław souvenir playing cards designed by Katarzyna Tomala, printed by Cartamundi Poland, 2011

Above: Wrocław souvenir playing cards designed by Katarzyna Tomala, printed by Cartamundi Poland, 2011.

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By Peter Burnett

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.


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