Roddy Somerville
- France • 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.
Visite de Saint Tropez
Souvenir pack with 54 different views of Saint Tropez.
Le tour de la Corse en photos
Souvenir pack with 55 different views of Corsica.
Golf Playing Cards
Humorous designs and non-standard pips poking fun at golf and golfers.
Jeu de Familles Les Pierrafeu®
Quartet game featuring The Flintstones and friends.
Dallas playing cards
Seven of the top stars from the famous TV series Dallas.
Crystal Time
Colourful and attractive designs by Violeta Monreal, inspired by stained glass through the ages.
Nokia II
Advertising pack for the Finnish firm Nokia showing different mobile phones.
Nordbräu Ingolstadt
Publicity pack for the German brewery Nordbräu with Bavarian pattern courts (adapted).
Wicküler Skat
Publicity pack for the German brewery Wicküler with courts merrily drinking beer.
Barok playing cards nr 232
Courts dressed in Baroque costumes in a pack printed by KZWP, Kraków, Poland, 1981.
Deutsche Dampflokomotiven
German steam locomotives from the period 1892 to 1950.
Joshi Bharát Tarot
A set of the major arcana created by an Indian fortune-teller living in Hungary.
The Firebird playing cards
Exquisite designs with characters and scenes from Russian folk tales by the artist Yury Shakov.
Mercedes-Benz Skat
Classy-looking designs by Monika Dostler for a manufacturer of posh cars.
Bahlsen Skat
Publicity pack for a German food company, featuring some of their products.
Marvel Poker
Marvel comic book characters on a pack from Italy with designs by Marco Nizzoli.
Endangered Species and other animals
54 different endangered species depicted in full colour published by Safari Limited, Ojus, Florida, USA, c1986.
Rombach + Co Skat
Publicity pack designed by Uschi Dorner for a bookshop in Freiburg im Breisgau.
B & K Skat
Publicity pack designed by Henning Loerzer for Busskamp & Koch, an advertising agency in Munich.
Overstolz Cigaretten
Colourful publicity playing cards for a brand of German cigarettes.
Souvenir of Singapore, Malaya and Borneo
52 different colour pictures of Singapore, Malaya and Borneo from the early 1960s.
Antoine Dieudonné c.1850
Reproduction of a pack by Antoine Dieudonné, Grevenmacher, Luxembourg, c1850.
The Liberty Deck
Portraits, signatures and brief biographies of the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence.
Iduna Skat
Advertising pack for a Hamburg building society featuring pigs in disguise.
Baraja de Futbol Mundial-82
A 1982 World Cup commemoration pack by Heráldica Castanyer from Spain with non-standard suits.
Mundiales 82 playing cards
Two packs (one French-suited, one Spanish-suited) for the World Cup held in Spain, 1982.
Sweetnotes playing cards
Heart-shaped cards with sweet notes on all the backs.
Jeu de Tarot Astérix
A French Tarot game pack with Astérix and friends on all the trump cards.
Hollywood Greats playing cards
18 stars in black and white from the Golden Age of Hollywood.
Volvo playing cards
Celebrating 50 years of innovation in Volvo car design.
Jeu de Cartes de Tahiti
Courts and Aces inspired by Polynesian history and culture designed by Michèle Feltrin.
The story behind some special Jokers
How the “Gibbons” Jokers came into being.
Carmen playing cards
Characters and scenes from the 1984 film of Bizet’s most famous opera, Carmen.
Salmon playing cards
13 colour photographs showing the life cycle of the salmon by Nintendo, Japan.
Crazyrider playing cards
Stylised portrayal of rock musicians from the 1980s.
Paris pattern by Leclaire of Paris
Standard designs from a little-known Parisian maker.
Smash Hits playing cards
Pack of playing cards with pop stars offered free with the Smash Hits magazine.
Paris pattern variant from Lyon, c1900
Updated courts retaining elements of a standard French pack by C. Gerentes, Lyon.
Tarock Schafkopf zum Wahlkampf 1990
Playing cards issued to mark the German federal elections held on 2 December 1990.
Golden Boys
Players from the 1998 Czech Olympic ice hockey team with photography by Jiří Koliš.
52 Transformierte Spielkarten
Modern transformation pack including some saucy images created by Siegfried Heilmeier.
Seaboard Air Line Railway souvenir playing cards
Seaboard Air Line Railway souvenir playing cards made by USPC Co., USA, c1910.
Romania Souvenir playing cards
High-quality souvenir pack with 53 different views of Romania.
The Cartoonists' Pack
Semi-transformation pack created by four famous British cartoonists.
Amistar playing cards
Publicity pack for product which controls fungal diseases in a range of crops, printed by Trefl, Kraków, Poland, c2005.
Sternenmädchens Wahrsagespiel Tarot
A colourful 1970s take on the major arcana designed by Peter Geitner, with titles in German.
Prophet Fortune Telling Cards
Prophet Fortune Telling Cards copyright and made by Thomas de la Rue & Co., 1933.
Guinness World Records Cards
52 Guinness World Records Cards published by if, Pickering, UK, 2011.
Rois de France
Figures from French history restyled for a younger audience published by Quelle Histoire, 2015.
Fishing for Compliments
‘Fishing for Compliments’ playing cards created by Pixel Initiative, illustrated by Stacey Jay Kelly.
Papst Quartett
A quartet game featuring a selection of popes up to Benedict XVI.