Naipes Kukuxumusu
A 52-card Spanish-suited advertising pack for a clothing company in Pamplona.
Kukuxumusu (or Ataute, S.L.) is a Spanish company from Pamplona, specialising in clothing and product design. The name means ‘flea kiss’ in Basque. The company was founded in 1989, making T-shirts featuring bull-running and bullfights, hence the colourful and humorous bulls on the court cards in this pack. On the Jokers are playful pink pigs. It is unusual for a Spanish-suited pack to have 52 cards and equally unusual for it to have English indices.
The first edition of this pack dates from 2006 and has 40 cards. In that version, the name of the printer, Heraclio Fournier, appears on the Ace of Coins, whereas it is missing here, suggesting that Fournier did not print this later version. Also, on the tablet at the foot of the Ace of Coins, the name KUKUXUMUSU appears here in uppercase lettering, whereas in the first edition the company name appeared in lowercase lettering. See the box
Above: Naipes Kukuxumusu made for Kukuxumusu, Pamplona, Spain, after 2006. Printer unknown. 52 cards + 4 Jokers (2 different designs) in tuck box. Size: 60 x 97 mm. Purchased in Vitoria, Spain, May 2024.
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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