Sea Myths Playing Cards
Morskie mify (Sea myths) designed by Lev Liberman, Russia, 2005.
This 54-card pack was produced in 2005 by Printissa of St. Petersburg. The artist was Lev Liberman (1976- ) the same man who also designed Kashmir, and the artistic structure of this pack is not dissimilar to that pack. The aces and court cards are artistic and colourfully drawn, looking like fantasy gods or royalty, while the pip cards portray a variety of imaginative mythical creatures. All the cards have a golden frame around the edges incorporating scallop shells, with the card suit and designation repeated on all four corners.
Above: Morskie mify (Sea myths) playing cards designed by Lev Liberman, Russia, 2005. 54 cards.
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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