Playing cards in Russian life
Playing cards in Russian life - Karty v zhizni Rossii - published by Aleksandr Lutkovskii in 2004.
This interesting pack was published in 2004 by Aleksandr Lutkovskii in the series Redkie karty Rossii / Rare cards of Russia. It was published to commemorate the Russian card collector Aleksandr Perel’man (1932-1995) whose cards form the basis of the Russian Playing Card Museum in Peterhof►
The pack consists of 36 cards and a further 8 Jokers and an explanatory card. Each card reproduces a Russian work of art, from all ages and all styles, which depicts individuals playing cards or using them for fortune-telling. Each card provides the name of the artist and the year of production.
Above: “Karty v zhizni Rossii” (Playing cards in Russian life) published by Aleksandr Lutkovskii in 2004. 36 cards + 8 jokers + extra card.
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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