Joker Tell
Comic celebration of 700 years of the Swiss Confederation, 1291-1991, with designs by Roland Gazzotti.
All things Swiss are celebrated in comic style in this amusing pack designed by Roland Gazzotti to mark 700 years of the Swiss Confederation (1291-1991) – cows, cooking, music, mice, money, cheese, apples and hence William Tell. The Kings are jolly farmers with their cows, the Queens cooks in costume, and the Jacks musicians. Mice can be found on the Aces nibbling at lebkuchen (AH), shovelling money (AS), and so on, and on the back emerging from holes in a piece of cheese. A strong colour has been used for each suit: red for Hearts, black for (actual) Spades, blue for Diamonds (representing icy peaks), and green for Clubs (clover leaves or trefoils). On the court cards the indices appear only once. The designer’s name is given on all the Aces and on one of the three different Jokers. See the box►
Above: ‘Joker Tell’ playing cards made by AG Müller, Neuhausen am Rheinfall, Switzerland, 1991. 52 cards + 3 Jokers in tuck box. Size: 57 x 89 mm. Illustrations: © Roland Gazzotti.
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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