Four Russian Knaves

When I was by my desk at the beach house on the weekend, I saw on a bookshelf the souvenir packs of playing cards I had bought at different times. The first was bought in Leningrad (now St Petersburg once more). We were on our way to England for me to finish my training, and had chosen to travel through the then Soviet Union from Khabarovsk to Leningrad. It is a pack of the Palekh Black cards. Designed by Pavel Bazhenov who won a competition to design a set of playing cards to display at the 1937 World Exhibition of Arts and Technology, in Paris. 

In 1967 the 150th anniversary of the Leningrad Combine of colour printing was marked with a new edition of the Palekh Black cards, known as the Jubilee Deck. There are subtle differences from the original design.

The knave in the classic playing card sets is depicted as a soldier, or a page (rarely) or a rogue. 

A certain Russian rogue came to mind when I thought of photographing part of my Palekh Black (1967) cards.