Political playing cards (2017)
Political playing cards by the British cartoonist Oliver Preston, United Kingdom, 2017.
Another pack produced by the British cartoonist Oliver Preston, following his earlier pack of 2015. This pack includes not only cartoons of UK politicians from all parties but also some of the major political figures from the European Union who figured prominently in the discussions and negotiations prior to the Brexit referendum of June 2016 (Angela Merkel, Donald Tusk and Michel Barnier). See the box►
Above: Political playing cards by the British cartoonist Oliver Preston, United Kingdom, 2017.
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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