Monuments de Paris
‘Monuments de Paris’ souvenir playing cards produced by Heraclio Fournier, c.1964.
One of a series of tourist packs produced by Fournier over the period 1952-1963, this Paris pack was published in c.1964 and presents black-and-white photographs of the major monuments, churches, bridges, museums and other familiar landmarks of the city. Sites outside of Paris such as the palaces of Fontainebleau and Versailles are also included. The cards have gilded corners, and the Mona Lisa adorns the back design. See the box
Above: Monuments de Paris souvenir playing cards produced by Heraclio Fournier, c.1964. The four of clubs has the manufacturer's name and a tax stamp.
Reference
Fournier Museum, Playing Cards, France 768 (p. 93).
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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