Cinquantenario Fondazione dell'Impero

This pack was published by Edizone Il Meneghello in a limited edition of 2000 on the 50th anniversary of the Italian Empire, and the creation of Italian East Africa. This was an Italian colony in the Horn of Africa formed in 1936 through the merger of Italian Somalia, Italian Eritrea, and the newly occupied Ethiopian Empire conquered in the Second Italo-Ethiopian War.

There are 40 cards in the pack, ace-seven, and jack, queen, king. The figures on the pip cards and courts are repeated on each suit, while the aces portray H.M. Vittorio Emanuele III, King of Italy from 1900-1946, and self-proclaimed Emperor of Ethiopia from 1936-1941, Haile Selasssie (Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974), Rodolfo Graziani (Viceroy of Italian East Africa) and, on the ace of hearts, a shield with crossed spears with a feathered crown above. The pip cards portray Ethiopian soldiers, an Abyssinian chieftain, sergeants from the Royal Corps of Eritrean Colonial Troops, Blackshirts from the Voluntary Militia for National Security.

Above: ‘Cinquantenario Fondazione dell'Impero’ playing cards published by Edizone Il Meneghello, 1986. The cards have square corners and measure 10 x 6 cm, limited edition of 2000.