Andy's Playing Cards - Uncut Sheets of Playing Cards

NAPOLETANE (MINI-DECK)

This sheet contains three full sets of mini-cards (see also the relevant Sizes, Shapes and Colours gallery), featuring the Napoletane pattern, traditionally used in Naples and in most other areas of the south of Italy.

The 120 subjects are arranged in sets of 40 different, i.e. as three individual decks. One of them is printed vertically, to optimize the use of the sheet, which could obviously not include a third horizontal set.

Guidelines for cutting out the single cards are clearly visible along the edges; the Pignalosa manufacturers still carried out this operation by hand.

The sheet measures 53 x 40 cm (21 x 16 in). When cut, each card would measure 5 x 3 cm (2 x 1¼ in).

The backs are standard, with a simple criss-cross texture in blue. Also the backs of the vertical set are printed separately from those of the other two.

sample courts from the suits of Coins and Batons		Up to the 1970s miniature playing cards used to be a fairly popular pastime among Italian kids; therefore, they were printed in most regional varieties. Although the editions of mini-decks by most other makers were less refined than the standard-sized decks, produced with thinner and cheaper pasteboard and with less detailed illustrations, this is not the case of Pignalosa's cards. Its print, seen in detail, has only a slight loss of detail compared to the quality of standard-sized playing cards, and the pasteboard used is exactly the same one on which regular decks used to be printed.

ace of Coins

The base of the ace of Coins bears the manufacturer's name in full, EDOARDO PIGNALOSA · NAPOLI, but the address is not mentioned, as in ordinary decks, due to the small size of these cards.

No date is found on the back. Since the sheet is by Edoardo Pignalosa, its age might widely range between the late 1940s and the late 1960s.

sample pip cards: 7 of Cups and ace of Swords

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