Napoleone playing cards
Long, narrow cards designed by Osvaldo Menegazzi, featuring Napoleon, Josephine and various soldiers.
Apart from Napoleon (KH) and Josephine (QH), the elongated cards in this pack depict an official and various soldiers in uniform, with dates ranging between 1792 and 1812. The designs by Osvaldo Menegazzi are single-ended, with only the court cards being numbered (10, 9, 8). The four Aces are decorated and all the pips have an ‘N’ in the centre. On the 2 of Spades, the designer has failed to remember to turn one of the pips. The cards have square corners and plain blue-green backs.
Above: Napoleone playing cards designed by Osvaldo Menegazzi (Studio Tratto, Milan). Published by Edizioni del Solleone di Vito Arienti, Lissone, Italy, 1971. 40 cards. Size: 34 x 120 mm.
Reference
Fournier Museum Catalogue, Vol. 1, Italy 227.
By Roddy Somerville
Member since May 31, 2022
Roddy started collecting stamps on his 8th birthday. In 1977 he joined the newly formed playing-card department at Stanley Gibbons in London before setting up his own business in Edinburgh four years later. His collecting interests include playing cards, postcards, stamps (especially playing cards on stamps) and sugar wrappers. He is a Past President of the Scottish Philatelic Society, a former Chairman of the IPCS, a Past Master of the Worshipful Company of Makers of Playing Cards and Curator of the WCMPC’s collection of playing cards. He lives near Toulouse in France.
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