When I think of the Jolly Joker, I think of Sargent Schultz's oft-used refrain on the old Hogan's Heroes TV show, not Dante. But then, one could argue that I'm a philistine. That aside, I'm featuring what I believe is a really cool set of rarely seen Dante playing cards
from Piatnick (made for Italy, circa 1920). And where would you find these cards? eBay of course. According to the eBay seller, the deck is complete with 52 cards + 2 rare Jokers in excellent condition.
Durante degli Alighieri commonly known as Dante, was an Italian poet of the Middle Ages. His central work, the Divina Commedia, is considered by many to be the greatest literary work composed in the Italian language and a masterpiece of world literature. In Italy he is known as "the Supreme Poet" or just il Poeta. (Thank you, Wikipedia.)
Where else but the ephemera blog would you find Dante and Hogan's Heroes referenced in the same breath? Maybe that's why ephemera won BlogAsheville's 2009 most under-rated blog award.
