Emanuelle
‘Emanuelle’ erotic transformation playing cards designed by Patrick Cuenot, 1986.
The designer of this risqué erotic transformation pack, published in 1986 by InterCol London, is the French artist and cartoonist Patrick Cuenot (b. 1952). The black-suited pip cards feature black-and-white transformations, while red is added to the transformations on the heart and diamond pip cards. The colourful court cards and jokers are playful and teasing. There are two spade aces, and an additional information card which provides a brief biography of the artist and notes: “The erotic theme of Emanuelle makes this a new concept and an original creation without precedence in the annals of playing card history” read more►
Above: ‘Emanuelle’ erotic transformation playing cards designed by Patrick Cuenot, 1986.
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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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