Playing cards in the USSR. How playing cards became a "weapon" of Soviet propaganda Watch ussr playing cards at auctions
Ten years ago, in 2004, the "Color Printing Plant" in St. Petersburg stopped issuing domestic playing cards, and now Russians are cutting themselves into a "thrown fool" with foreign consumer goods. At the same time, many do not even suspect that in the USSR great propaganda hopes were placed on playing cards. Many original card decks were printed that ridiculed "remnants of tsarism", "religious opium for the people", "fought against drunkenness", "sharks of capitalism" and so on.
"Don maps" - 1919
The first playing cards of the Soviet era, oddly enough, were the White Guard "Don cards". On the unique sketches of the White Guard maps issued during civil war in 1919 in Novocherkassk, Don atamans are depicted as kings, ladies - Cossacks, jacks - Cossacks. The four suits of this deck show the history of the Don over four centuries. Figured cards of a diamond suit are depicted in costumes of the 16th century, clubs - of the 17th, hearts - of the 18th and spades - of the 19th. The aces are also decorated with designs corresponding to the era. For example, on the ace of clubs, the Don coat of arms is shown, which was even before Peter I, - "Elen, hit by an arrow, but not conquered", by the way, also restored by Krasnov as the official symbol of the Cossack republic.
The appearance of such a deck during the Civil War on the Don is not accidental. With her help, Ataman Krasnov tried to popularize his idea of creating a separate Don Republic among the local population, - Yevgeny Grigorenko, the author of the monograph Russian Playing Cards: History and Style, told RG. - There is an opinion that the plots for playing cards were invented by Ataman Krasnov himself, who was a supporter of the Don autonomy and was very fond of creating everything Cossack. He renamed the Don region into the All-Great Don Army, approved the constitution written by himself, ordered the production of a "Cossack" St. George's Cross, on which, instead of St. George, a Cossack was depicted in the Don "national" costume, etc.
The reign of Ataman Krasnov was short-lived, and therefore Don playing cards are very rare. The only complete sample was preserved in an album called "Samples of the work of the expedition for the preparation of valuable forms of the Great Don Army." Novocherkassk, 1919". It is kept in a private collection.
"Broken Cards" - 1932
The Bolsheviks answered their ideological opponents only 13 years later. The popular Soviet magazine "Krokodil" published an article "Broken Cards", caustically ridiculing the true and imaginary enemies of Soviet power. The text was accompanied by drawings of a full set of figures and aces of a card deck, where the described characters were shown in a caricature.
“The figures depicted here are quite well known to everyone far beyond the magazine. All these people once played trump cards, but at the moment “there are no more, and those are far away,” wrote the author of the magazine article.
The worms, according to the artist, personified the White Guard military and political figures. Moreover, Admiral Kolchak was printed in the form of a lady - the upper part of the drawing, the lower lady was depicted by Baron Wrangel. Tambourines were foreign opponents of the USSR: Clemenceau, Poincaré, Churchill, etc. Clubs were figures of the creative intelligentsia and Mensheviks who did not share the views of the Soviet government. But the peaks personified "the dear memories of capitalism" in a socialist society.
"The king of spades (above) is a fist with a sawn-off rifle in his hand, the king (below) is a speculator-dealer. Ladies - Red tape (above) and Bureaucracy (below). Sisters. Despite their difficult nature, they get along well under the same roof", - wrote a satirist from the magazine "Eccentric".
"Peoples of the USSR" - 1929
Not all cards offered by the Soviet state were popular. Such a fate, for example, befell the playing cards "Peoples of the USSR", which depicted various nationalities Soviet Union. In 1929 there was a real scandal, which was reported by the magazine "Eccentric". The author of the magazine article "Renewed Jacks" quite flowery described the situation.
“The State Cart Monopoly decided to work “in terms of a cultural approach.” And instead of kings with janitor beards, instead of haughty ladies and jacks with lascivious eyes, representatives of the nationalities of our Union appeared. Instead of him - a Belarusian in a ram's hat. There is also no lady of spades. In our country there is no place for such ladies. Now there is a young Ukrainian woman in an embroidered shirt, a young Ukrainian spade. The rest of the figures match. There are also liberated women of the East (ladies who threw off the veil) , there are also Tajiks (kings and jacks who formed a collective farm)," the critic wrote.
It is no coincidence that this deck did not take root, and only one copy of it has survived to this day. Due to unprofitability and "politically incorrect" deck was removed from production.
"Anti-religious" - 1934
In the 1930s, an anti-clerical propaganda deck was produced at the Card Factory in Leningrad, which fully corresponded to the spirit of building a new, Soviet life. The cards were called simply and straightforwardly - "Anti-religious". The cards were drawn by Sergey Levashov, an artist and one of the leaders of the Card Factory. Unfortunately, almost nothing is known about the history of Levashov's creation of his cards, but the very way of organizing the composition of these card figures is amazing in its simplicity and originality.
Each card is a "casket with a double bottom": in the foreground - the clergy of one of the four world religions, and in the background - the real thoughts and deeds of these "persons". The general idea of anti-religious propaganda corresponds to the joker and card shirts. On the joker, the Almighty is shown in the form of a handsome and well-fed capitalist in a top hat, tie and with wings, like puppets, a leader and a shaman, and a pastor - a rather ordinary drawing in the style of caricatures from the Soviet magazine Bezbozhnik, published in the same years. Card shirts turned out to be much more expressive. For example, a "naughty" shirt for "internal use". On it, the dashing and not at all old Baba Yaga in a bright red sundress, helping herself with a broom, flies in her mortar into the impenetrable fairy-tale jungle, taking with her the unfortunate stolen child.
By the way, the cards were also produced in an export version on expensive paper and differed somewhat in drawings.
"Antifascist" - 1941
The short-term Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940 set new themes for playing card artists. A sketch has been preserved, made in black and white graphics and with watercolors, where the leaders of the fascist countries that supported Finland were presented in a sharp caricature. The fact that the cards were created in connection with the Soviet-Finnish conflict can be judged by the inscription on the ace of hearts "Voitto" - in Finnish it means "Victory". In general, all the card aces of this deck are options for what a Russian rifle with an "enemy cabal" can do.
Drawings of curly cards are made in a caricature manner. Kings of Hearts - Marshal Antonescu (Romania) and Admiral Horthy (Hungary), one with a violin, the other with a whip. The King of Diamonds - Hitler and Mussolini "in one bottle", the first - with a Nibelungian two-handed sword in an embrace, and the second - a fat man in a ridiculous turban with feathers. The ladies in this deck also have an enviable range of options and characters. These are fat, but sad fascist passions, caught at the moment of wine and tobacco sadness over the obvious failures of their "heroes".
From besieged Leningrad - 1942
Back in the prewar years, the 7th Special Department of the GUPPKA developed a methodology for conducting information warfare, which was based on the formation of a system of ideological and psychological indoctrination of the personnel of the enemy's armed forces. Well-known artists Mandel, Grigoriev, Emelyanov, Pevzner took part in the work, but the sketches of Vasily Vlasov were recognized as the best, and he was entrusted with the work of creating a formidable card "weapon".
This deck of cards, called "Anti-Fascist", was made at the Card Factory under the difficult conditions of the blockade. An exhausted and exhausted artist in a cold, dimly lit apartment on Vasilievsky Island, catching every minute of the dim winter day, applied watercolor on cardboard with the finest strokes. The fact is that watercolors need to be painted only with natural color, otherwise the tones are distorted. After each new sketch was ready, it had to be carried to the lithographic shop, located 23 kilometers from the artist's apartment. The weakened Vlasov no longer had the strength to do this, and he agreed with his immediate supervisor that on certain days he would meet with him in the middle of the Neva and hand over the finished sketches.
At the beginning of 1942, 17 card designs were ready for printing. Kings: Hitler with an Aryan skull, Mussolini's blackshirt with a bloody ax on his shoulder, Hungarian Admiral Horthy, Finnish Marshal Mannerheim with a whip in his hand. Jacks - caricatures of the associates of the "possessed Fuhrer" - Goebbels, Himmler, Goering and Ribbentrop. In total, more than 700 map sheets were printed.
Packed in waterproof paper, the cards were lowered into a bucket of water and left for several hours. The deck has stood the test. The "export" goods were ready for "casting" - the forces of the partisan detachments scattered the cards in the enemy units. The second edition of this "killer" deck was released only at the beginning of 1943, which is not surprising for the conditions in which the "Anti-Fascist" cards were born.
"Antifascist" - 1943
Another deck of playing cards is known, created by the front-line artist Ivan Khartkevich, who in 1942-1943 served in the editorial office of the propaganda newspaper Soldatenfreund ("Soldier's Friend"). A feature of Khartkevich's work was the inscriptions of the "trench jargon" of German prisoners of war. For example, on the six they placed (translated into Russian) "Hitler sowed for 6 years - you reap the harvest", on the seven - "7 days in the East - a week of hell in the lost positions." The joker turned out to be especially interesting - a simple German soldier, overshadowed by the thought: "When the game began, I was careless and modest, but it is coming to an end, and I know its outcome. Only the fall of Hitler will save Germany. I decide my own fate!"
These cards, conceived also as a pass on the front line when surrendering, were never printed during the war. Khartkevich himself described this situation as follows: "The rapid offensive of the Red Army began, and, perhaps, some details became outdated. And then, agitation and propaganda is a delicate matter, maybe this idea was not approved by someone at the very top" - Ales Karlyukevich wrote in his book "Interview with the artist Khartkevich".
True, the original maps have been preserved. They lay for a long time in one of the museums and were recently printed in Belarus.
By the way
After the end of the Great Patriotic War the Soviet government abandoned the production of original card decks. The reason for this - high costs and weak printing capacity. Before the start of perestroika, Soviet citizens played with a deck called "Satin". The drawings of these maps were created back in 1862 by the academician of painting Adolphe Charlemagne. With the decline of the ideology of Marxism-Leninism, in the late 80s of the last century, other well-known, but ideologically incorrect, playing cards began to be produced. For example, the Russian Style deck, which many Russians still play today, was created in 1911 based on national costumes of the 17th century shown during the Historical Ball in the Kremlin. The prototype of the king of hearts was the Russian Emperor Nicholas II himself, and the ladies - Empress Maria Feodorovna. Unfortunately, the card factory "Color Printing Plant" in St. Petersburg, unable to withstand the test of time and competition with cheap foreign cards, in 2004 ceased to exist for almost two centuries. However, the traditions of Russian card artists and graphic artists in modern Russia continue small printing enterprises in different regions of the country.
Playing card from the "Satin" deck
Playing cards have been known since ancient times. And they have always been popular, at all times, even now. In Soviet times, everyone knew how to play cards. Both old and young. Playing cards was just folk.
A playing card from the "Lubochny" deck. Artist V.M. Sveshnikov.
Acquaintance with the cards began with the study of the names of the cards. The king is an old man, the lady is a woman, the jack is a young man, ace, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Bubi - rhombus, red heart - blame or worms, black heart - spades, cross - crosses. So gradually they learned the names of the cards and their suits, the main thing is not to confuse. So, however, taught and numbers. Remember the first childhood card games? "Zassyha", "Fist", "Drunkard" and others. Card tricks and simple tricks with cards are recalled with delight.
Playing card from the deck "Maya". Artist V.M. Sveshnikov.
If you remember, they played cards everywhere. They played mainly the well-known universal card games: "Fool", "Preference", "Throw-in and Transfer Fool", "Poker", "Point" and others. Company was needed to play cards. Three people, a deck of playing cards and there is already something to do.
Playing card from the deck "Souvenir" - "Russian style"
And remember, they took cards with them to any place: on the road, on a hike, to a camp site, just to relax and the beach, to the hospital. Time passed faster while playing cards. In the yards, the men not only beat the "goat" in dominoes, but also played cards. Whole families played cards, they spent their evening leisure in this way. I remember my grandparents who spent free time for playing cards. Neighbors who were bored alone came to play with them. When relatives arrived, it was imperative to play cards with them and hang shoulder straps. Even at birthday parties, they sometimes played cards to eat leftover dishes from the table.
Playing card from the Palekh deck. Artist P. Bazhenov
There were also malicious gamblers who could not live without playing cards. For some, cards were a means of earning money and professional activity. Someone played them for fun in their free time.
Playing card from the deck "Souvenir" - "Slavic"
And we, as children, also managed to walk everywhere with a deck of cards. They wore them to school, played cards at recess or after school, just because there was nothing to do. In summer camps, the main entertainment was also cards. Of course, children had to hide from adults. We played, of course, just like that, for the sake of the game itself. Sometimes, it happened, they played for desires, and even for money. How many decks of cards were selected by adults and cannot be counted.
Playing card from the deck "Souvenir" - "Rococo"
It was not only possible to play cards. Girls, girls and women on the cards also guessed. This is a whole science - fortune telling on cards. Each card is usually assigned its own meaning, and the essence of fortune-telling was based on how the cards fall out. There were a lot of ways to guess on the cards. They were guessing at fate, at desire, at the betrothed, at the road. Each girl knew some kind of fortune-telling and fortune-telling for herself and others. For fortune-telling on cards, there are rules, customs. There were also fortune-tellers to whom they went to tell fortunes on the cards. Something came true, something did not come true. But often it was impossible to guess, they said that supposedly you would lose your whole life. And the elderly ladies, who did not play cards and did not guess on them, played solitaire from cards in their free time. There are also many types of solitaire. The main thing in solitaire is that the entire deck of cards must decompose according to some specific conditions.
Playing card from the deck "On the motifs of opera sets". Artist V.M. Sveshnikov.
And we're not going anywhere from cards. They are walking with us. Only now they have been slightly improved and modified. Playing cards have now gone to casinos, to slot machines, to computer and telephone games. AT computer games card games and solitaire are not the last. They even guess now not with simple cards, but with special fortune-telling cards, or tarot cards. Well, in the masses, people still play cards, the usual "fool".
For comparison, changes in satin maps of different periods in the USSR and Russia on the example of the jack of hearts.
Left to right: 1911, 1930, 1959, 1989, 1996.
So here are the main changes.
After the revolution / coup of 1917, the symbols of the empire - the double-headed eagles - disappeared on the maps.
From about the 30s to the 80s, the older cards lack the frame and complex toning on the faces.
80s peak quality of the domestic cart industry. Frames on older maps and complex toning on faces are returning.
Indices have been changed since 1995 - they are increasing, and another logo appears on the ace of tambourines. The Joker becomes colored.
In the first half of the 20th century, the silhouette on the suit icons also changes, this is especially noticeable on spades and hearts.
It seems to me that in 1995 the indexes were increased not entirely successfully, the font was not in the spirit of satin maps. The only time an edition with a successful font was in a deck of a domestic unknown publisher in 2003
According to some collectors, for example, Alexander Sukhorukov, the joker appeared in a satin deck after the First World War.
For example, here are several jokers from different periods from right to left from top to bottom: a joker from 50s decks, a joker from 80s decks, a joker from an export deck, two jokers in color from a 1995 deck.
In 2004, satin maps were no longer produced in Russia due to the closure of the factory.
Cards of the Chinese cart industry are made of soft laminated cardboard and are sold in stalls for 20 rubles.
Other posts about satin maps.
Let's plunge a little into the history of Russian playing cards. And oddly enough, one online store that sells, among other things, reprints of old maps, will help us in this. These are absolutely new cards, but released according to the sketches of those that were once released. Link to the site at the end of the post.
The first playing cards in Russia appeared during the reign of Fyodor Ioannovich. But before Peter I, all cards were exclusively imported. In general, they were considered a great sin. Under the reformer tsar, the attitude to card games (as well as to alcohol, smoking, coffee, etc.) is changing. Even their production begins in Moscow. But it reached a large scale much later, under Alexander I, who monopolized the production of playing cards. This brought considerable income, which was directed to the maintenance of the Empress's department, which took care of orphans.
RUSSIAN TAROQ
Since the last quarter of the 18th century, tarok has been mentioned for the first time among card games in Russia. To play tarok, a very specific deck of 78 sheets is used, including 22 special numbered cards called the Major Arcana. The tarok deck was one of the first to be made in the card workshops of the Alexander manufactory. The need to issue tarok cards was specifically mentioned in a special regulation in 1819 at the establishment of the Card Factory. The tarok deck in the 30s - 40s of the 19th century was the most expensive in the assortment of the Card Factory and cost 70 kopecks (8 rubles 40 kopecks for a dozen decks). The production of Russian tarok cards continued until at least 1855, when they are last mentioned in the Price Table. different varieties cards" of the Card Factory.
RUSSIAN PLAYING CARDS OF 1798
Produced at Russian tax-paying card manufactories.
RUSSIAN PLAYING CARDS OF 1815
FOR THE KINGDOM OF POLISH
Cards were issued by the Imperial Card Factory specifically for those annexed to Russia in early XIX centuries of Polish provinces and were called "Maps made for the Kingdom of Poland." The most important differences between these cards are drawings of German-type card suits, as well as a different composition of card figures, in which there are no ladies, but, in addition to the king, there are two more “male” persons - the vyshnik and the nizhnik (in relation to Russian cards, this was, as it were, the jack of the elder and low jack).
GEOGRAPHICAL MAPS OF RUSSIA
Geographic maps were invented and compiled by K. M. Gribanov in 1830. This is the first independent sample of cards published at the Card Factory at the Alexander Manufactory in St. Petersburg. The deck of Konstantin Gribanov consists of 60 cards, although the standard full deck has 52 cards. This is explained by the fact that the author pursued the goal of creating a thematic geographical deck depicting all administrative-territorial units Russian Empire. In 1830, there were 60 such units. On the front side of each card, divided into four parts, a playing card, a provincial coat of arms, a local costume and a list of cities in the province are shown. Another feature of these maps is its “back” (back side) - each map has its own and is a geographical map of the administrative unit indicating the distance to St. Petersburg and Moscow
RUSSIAN PLAYING CARDS 1850
A very rare Russian deck produced at the Imperial Card Factory.
SKETCHES BY A.E. BEIDEMAN
In the early 1860s, the academician of historical painting Beideman was involved in the creation of projects for new playing cards. A talented draftsman and illustrator, Beideman showed classic literary types in the drawings of this deck. The deck has never been released.
Beideman was also a master of humorous compositions, which is evident in the drawings of this deck. A test print was made from the drawings, but the deck was never published.
HUNTING CARDS
The deck of cards was created in 1860 by the court painter of the Russian Emperor Alexander II, Mihai Zichy. All cards depict imperial hunting scenes and miniature images of standard playing cards. The deck was intended for the Card Factory, but was not published.
ROAD
A deck produced at the Imperial Card Factory in the 1860s. Artist A.I.Charlemagne.
NEW FIGURES
One of the decks of cards, prepared in 1862 by Academician A.I. Charlemagne by order of the Card Factory.
EYE
A deck issued by the Imperial Card Factory in 1870.
2 GRADE
A deck also released in 1870.
1 SORT
A deck issued by the Imperial Card Factory in 1875. The quality of drawing is really higher than that of the 2nd grade.
POLISH
The deck has been manufactured by the Imperial Card Factory since 1881. These cards were a collection of images so heterogeneous and unusual that in subsequent years this became the reason for the appearance of various names for it. In Russia, this deck was called "Figured", in Germany Zirkuskarte (Circus cards), in Italy "Trappola" - after an old card game, which requires a special deck of 36 sheets.
EXCELLENT GRADE
A deck produced by the Imperial Card Factory in 1897. Artist Karazin.
M.O.MIKESHIN. SKETCH OF PLAYING CARDS
The project of playing cards for the Imperial Card Factory by the famous Russian sculptor and artist M.O. Mikeshin was built in 1890. The project was made "in the Russian style", very fashionable at that time, and includes sketches of halves of 12 figured cards, that is, all the figures of an ordinary card deck, made in the form of characters from Russian fairy tales. The design of the deck was demonstrated at the All-Russian Exhibition of Printing, held in St. Petersburg in 1895, and received very flattering responses there. But the cards did not go into circulation due to "heaviness and lack of freedom of style", as it is written in the "History of Russian Art" edited by I. Grabar.
RUSSIAN STYLE
The deck "Russian style" is one of the most successful card projects in Russia. Repeated attempts to create decks in the Russian national spirit were unsuccessful before. The drawings of this deck were based on the costumes of the participants in the famous "Historical" ball, held in the Kremlin in January 1903. Those present were dressed in Russian costumes of the 17th century, and Emperor Nicholas II was in the costume of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich.
NEW STYLE
For the first time, a deck with these drawings was released in 1911 under the name " New style". When reissued in 1935, this name was preserved in the price lists of the State Card Monopoly. In the post-war period, since 1964, the deck was produced under the name "Preference" and consisted of 32 sheets.
Fancy
The deck was released in 1910. The drawings were created by the artist of the famous German card factory Dondorf and were very similar to the drawings of the Mittelalter deck.
ROCOCO
The original deck was released in 1911. In the 1930s, an export version of the deck was developed and produced - with Latin indices, a silver-plated cut. In the post-war period, card design was used for a long time for reduced size solitaire decks.
HISTORICAL
A deck of playing cards, first published by the Imperial Card Factory in 1911 under the name "Historical". The deck began to be produced again in 1930, including in the export version - with Latin indices. Figured maps show representatives of ancient civilizations - Egyptian, Assyrian, Greek and Norman.
SLAVIC
The export deck was created according to the sketches of 1911. But it was released only in 1928 by the Leningrad Color Printing Plant. The deck has Latin spelling of indices.
ALLIED ARMIES
1917 deck. The images are dedicated to the member states of the Entente.
Upd. Although this deck was not released in our country, I decided to leave it. Because it is directly related to the history of Russia.
The most recognizable and popular in Russia and the USSR were "satin" cards.
Therefore, I wanted to make the first post in this community about them.
They were created in 1860 by the academician of painting Adolf Iosifovich Charlemagne.
Another design of these cards is called the Russian template (pattern).
Each country or region has its own template
http://www.altacarta.com/russkij/overview.html
Now the most historically reliable, those same "satin" ones are printed by the Piatnik factory (Austria) under the name Great Russia.
They differ from the cards of the Soviet period in that there is a double-headed eagle on the ace of diamonds and the jack of hearts.
From an article by Evgeny Nikolaevich Grigorenko about satin maps.
The well-known Satin playing cards are so familiar to our eyes that any other cards seem unusual to us and certainly some kind of "non-Russian". Indeed, Satin cards have been the most common and popular playing cards in Russia for many decades. It seems that they exist from the very beginning, like Russian folk songs or Russian fairy tales. But this is not so - these maps have an author, and they appeared in Russia in the middle of the 19th century.
The direct production of cards was launched in the suburbs of St. Petersburg, at the state-owned Alexander Manufactory, in which the Imperial Card Factory began to operate in 1819.
After the abolition of serfdom, significant changes began at the Card Factory. Director A.Ya. Wilson, who held this position for over 40 years. Free laborers were hired to replace the serfs, more than 60 new machines were purchased, and an experienced master Winkelman became the head of production. Along with updating the technical side of the matter, it became necessary to change and decoration kart.
This issue has been taken seriously. The development of new drawings of playing cards was entrusted to the academicians of painting Adolf Iosifovich Charlemagne (Bode-Charlemagne) and Alexander Egorovich Beideman. The artists created several sketches, which still, after a century and a half, are wonderful examples of card graphics and adorn the collection of the State Russian Museum and the Peterhof Card Museum. However, fairly simple and artistically concise drawings by Academician Charlemagne were put into production, which we now know as Atlas Maps.
You can explain why this particular playing card project was so successful. The drawings of Academician Beideman, like other sketches by Charlemagne, were very artistically attractive, but they turned out to be not quite suitable for such mass production as the printing of playing cards. The sketch of the Satin Maps was made for printing in four colors - black, yellow, blue and red. However, not only "manufacturability" played a role in success. The drawing of card figures turned out to be so concise, so devoid of unnecessary details and complex angles, that success was simply inevitable.
AI Charlemagne did not create a fundamentally new card style. The satin cards were the result of an exceptionally masterful processing of already existing card drawings, which were used as early as the 17th and early 18th centuries at Moscow card factories maintained by tax-farmers. However, these, as one might call them, "old" drawings had as their fundamental principle the so-called "North German picture", which also came from a completely ancient folk French card deck.
The created new map sketches did not have their own name and were not called Atlas. The very concept of "satin" in the middle of the 19th century did not refer to a pattern or a special style of cards, but to the technology of their manufacture. Atlas itself was called then, and even now they call a special variety of smooth, glossy, shiny silk fabric. The paper from which the cards were then made was rough, with spots and stains, poorly glued, and often had different thicknesses in the sheet. To give the cards an improved look, the paper on which they were printed was previously rubbed with talcum powder on special wheeled machines, the work on which was extremely unhealthy. Cards made on satin paper were not afraid of moisture, glided well when shuffled and cost more. In 1855, a dozen decks of satin cards cost 5 rubles 40 kopecks, on a par with gold-edged cards made by hand for the imperial court.
Charlemagne's drawings were used in the manufacture of satin cards, cards of the first and second grades, as well as "Extra" cards already in the 30s of the 20th century. Gradually, all card products began to be made on satin paper, and the own name Satin was firmly entrenched in Charlemagne's cards.
Second grade cards, late 19th century. These cards with a simplified design cost less and were in demand among the lower classes.
First grade cards, late 19th century.
In addition to the plaid shirt, the satin varieties "extra" also had this one.
But the aces of the post-revolutionary period.
1925
And last but not least, Joker :)
To be continued...