Peterhof
“Peterhof” deck manufactured at the St Petersburg Colour Printing Plant in 1999.
Peterhof souvenir deck manufactured by the St Petersburg Colour Printing Plant (Kombinat Tsvetnoi Pechati) in 1999 with court cards depicting representatives of the Russian Romanov dynasty who were rulers from 1613 until the Russian Revolution of February 1917. The designs were originally published by Piatnik as “Romanow (nr. 1141)” in 1997. Peterhof Palace was founded at the beginning of the 18th century and became the Russian Tsars’ summer residence during the 18th-19th centuries. It contains the world’s largest system of fountains and water cascades.
Each court card portrays a Tsar or Tsarina whose life and fate was associated with the Palace. The three named Jokers are Aleksandr Menshikov (statesman and friend of Tsar Peter the Great), Grigorii Rasputin (mystic and self-proclaimed holy man who befriended the family of Nicholas II, the last Emperor of Russia), and Ernst Johann von Biron (briefly regent of the Russian Empire in 1740).
NOTE: a pack of the same name was published by Mednyi Vsadnik as a photographic souvenir of the Peterhof palace, treasures, fountains and gardens. Extra descriptive notes courtesy Peter Burnett.
By Simon Wintle
Member since February 01, 1996
Founder and editor of the World of Playing Cards since 1996. He is a former committee member of the IPCS and was graphics editor of The Playing-Card journal for many years. He has lived at various times in Chile, England and Wales and is currently living in Extremadura, Spain. Simon's first limited edition pack of playing cards was a replica of a seventeenth century traditional English pack, which he produced from woodblocks and stencils.
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