PJMadsen's Playing Card Museum


	This wonderful set comprises two decks of cards in individual cases - one set white, one set black, and an accompanying booklet: "The Art of Erte" (163 pages). All encased in a richly lacquered black box with gold lettering.


	SOBRANIE by


	All cards carry the signature of Erté.


	With this deck, the beauty is not confined to the Court cards. On all the PIP cards, the numerals have been transformed into wonderful Art Deco figures using mainly human bodies and their costumes. All the numerals and courts are identical in all 4 suits, the Aces however are all different. The only card which carries a reference to smoking is the "10", which shows two matches and a mouth holding a cigarette, and the smoke crated thereby.


	I acquired this set from InterCol of London. More cards from Erté can be seen at BLGUPC: "La Traviata".


	"In 1982, Sobranie of London, the sponsors of the Sobranie Bridge Challenge, set out to produce a unique set of playing cards that would reflect the elegant, sophisticated image of their cigarettes. One living artist perfectly personified that image both in himself and in his work. - Erté. An artist whose life has been touched by the glitter of pre-revolutionary Russia; fashionable Paris in the 1920's; and the glamour of Hollywood. A man with boundless creative talent combined with the skill of a great craftsman. Erté agreed to the adaptation of a series of intricate designs for the numerals 1 to 10 that he had produced many years earlier and Sobranie commissioned him to produce the three Court cards and Joker to complete the pack. At the age of 90, Erté was working as superbly as at any time in his life and the four new paintings blended immaculately with the existing numerals. But the collaboration between Erté and Sobranie has gone beyond a unique pack of cards. The decks of cards, the specially written book and the highly lacquered box, reminiscent of an age of quality, grace and charm, combine to celebrate the "Art of Erte", which Sobranie of London have been privileged to produce."


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