Art for Life
Art for Life playing cards illustrated by Francesc Artigau i Seguí for the British Red Cross, 2014.
This pack was printed in 2014 by Cartamundi for the International Fundraising Committee of the British Red Cross, with the aid and guidance of the Worshipful Company of Makers of Playing Cards.
Two limited editions were commissioned as a gift to Maria Shammas in thanks for her leadership of the Committee over many years: 400 twin packs signed by the artist, Francesc Artigau i Seguí, and an unnumbered edition. See the box►
The aces are shown against a background of poignant disaster scenes: a blizzard (spades); a road accident (clubs); a refugee camp (hearts); a bombed city (diamonds). The court cards are repeated in each suit: Henry Dunant (Kings); a nurse holding a baby (Queens) and a male volunteer (Jacks). A British nurse is portrayed on the card backs. The two extra cards portray Henry Dunant signing the Red Cross Charter in 1864. An explanatory leaflet in English and Spanish accompanies the twin pack.
Above: Art for Life playing cards illustrated by Francesc Artigau i Seguí, made by Cartamundi, 2014.
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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