Gaudí playing cards
Gaudí playing cards with photography by Ramon Manent, Spain, 2002.
Published by Heraclio Fournier in 2002, this is another pack devoted to the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí (1852-1926). Unlike the earlier Gaudí Poker, the cards display photographs by Ramon Manent (b. 1948), who specialises in portraying Catalan art and architecture of the Romanesque, Gothic and especially the Modernista periods. Manent is famed for his photos of works by Gaudí, showcasing their forms, textures and colours. His images of the architect’s oeuvre demonstrate his mastery at capturing the object, light and space. See the box►
The cards have decorative borders within which is a photograph of a particular building or a specific feature or aspect of one of Gaudí’s masterpieces. There are three additional cards providing information about the artist, in Spanish, French and English►
Above: Gaudí playing cards published by Heraclio Fournier, Spain, 2002.
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.
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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