Jeu Gothique
‘Jeu Gothique’ illustrating the Gothic period in France, published by Editions Dusserre.
Published by Editions Dusserre, Paris, c. 1987, this colourful deck celebrates the Gothic period in France. The court cards and two Jokers portray the great kings and queens of France based on paintings from the French Schools of the 14th through the 16th centuries. The Aces portray famous locations, including the Palais du Louvre and the Château de Saumur. Each of these pictorial cards gives the name of the person or place, and indicates the source of the image used along the side The pip cards provide information about Gothic artists, engravers, authors, architecture (civil and military) and painters. See the box►
Above: Jeu Gothique published by Editions Dusserre, Paris, France, c.1987.
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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