The four photos below show, in order, two different original boxes for this brand (a telescope case for the gold edged version and a tuck box for the plain edged "seconds" version); a sample card and the standard King Henry VIII joker for this brand; followed by the 6 known back designs for this brand that are in my collection. If anyone else has any additional back designs to share for this brand, I would appreciate seeing them posted on this website. The variation of the fencing lady with the brown border shown in the center of the fourth photo also comes in a black border but I consider that just a color variation and not a separate back design.

That is a wonderful early advertising deck you found at that flea market. Thanks for sharing it with us on this site.
Based upon the design of the Ace of Spades and the style of the court cards, it appears to have been made by the American Playing Card Co. of New York but the Hochman Encyclopedia suggests that this deck may date to c.1875 which is ten years earlier than your estimate. If your deck was handled in a manner similar to that of the Splendid Plug Tobacco advertising deck which they made for P. Lorillard & Co. then the joker would have been the same as the one shown under the reference number L10 in chapter four of part one in the encyclopedia.

The following photos pertain to Hochman O3, Aluminum Playing Cards by Charles L. King, New York, circa the 1920's.
I am showing the 4 back designs for this issue that I am aware of, however, I would like to know if any other collector can advise if there are others. I particularly like the 3 that show a woman of that era engaged in a popular sport, such as Golf, Tennis and Polo. I do not know the title of the back design showing the sailboat but it may be something like Yachting. I had to photograph the aluminum card case for each deck because the actual back design on the cards themselves is printed in pale pink or green and is so light that it did not produce a clear image. The fifth photo shows the Ace of Spades and Joker for this issue plus the score card that would also have been included in the original package.

I am introducing two early card games, both copyrighted in 1894, whose relevance to the playing card collecting world has to do with their well-known Bicycle back designs, both of which were introduced three years earlier in 1891.
The first game is entitled "Pronouncit" and consists of 50 cards, each containing ten words which are to be pronounced, hopefully correctly, by the person holding that card. There is also an accompanying book of instructions, shown in the second photo together with the red Acorn back design and a sample of the front of one of the fifty game cards. The first photo shows the front of the original box, unfortunately with old tape on it. This educational game is by J.W. Howell of Bellaire, Ohio.
The second game, which I find to be more interesting because this deck can also be used to play standard card games, is entitled "Literary Whist - Shakespeare" and consists of 52 cards plus a title card that could also be used as a joker, if needed (please see the third photo below). There is an accompanying single folded sheet of instructions and this game comes in a dark red 2-piece original box in the style of some of the early decks issued by National PCC or like the ones made for the Tiffany transformation deck or the Civil War Union cards. The "suits" in this deck are four of Shakespeare's plays as shown on the title card. The cards in each "suit", or play, run from A-K, as they would in any standard deck and each "suit" is printed in it's own color, so this could even be considered a no-revoke deck, albeit this is something of a stretch. The aces are all the same and the images on the jacks, queens and kings are as shown below in the fourth photo and repeat in each "suit", although the names of each are different, corresponding to characters in that particular play, so the Queen of Othello is entitled Desdemona but the Queen of The Merchant of Venice is entitled Portia. Each pip card, 2-10, contains lines of dialogue from each respective play corresponding to the number of that particular card, therefore, a two would contain two lines of dialogue and a ten would contain ten lines of dialogue. The backs are the red Lotus design. There is no indication on either the original box or the instructions who designed or printed this game but it does not seem unreasonable to think that USPC may have been involved.

A truly remarkable deck, Matt! Thank you so much for sharing these images with us.

Here is a wonderful whist-sized Canadian tobacco advertising deck made by Montreal Lithographing Co. Ltd. c.1905.
In addition to the colorful back design, we are also treated to additional advertising on each ace and the amazing joker which is shown in it's basic version in the Hochman Encyclopedia under CDN29 (please see the two pictures below). This particular version of the Ace of Spades appears to be a new variation for Montreal Litho. Another unusual observation regarding this deck is the use of the term "Indicators" on the original box even though there appears to be no connection with A. Dougherty. The front and back of the original box simply replicate the card back design.

In honor of the first game of the World Series taking place tonight, I am fortunate enough to be able to introduce a newly discovered deck of playing cards that doubles as a baseball game or vice versa. It is called Batter Up by C.F. Bennett, Meriden, Conn., copyright 1925, printed by Nutmeg Press and consists of 52 cards without a joker. The cards are square cornered and each of the 13 ranks (A-K) shows one baseball play. Unfortunately, in my opinion, the same play is repeated in each suit and so there are only a total of 13 plays of baseball represented in this deck. It is also rather uninspiring in it's graphics. Please see the accompanying photos of the original box, the front of two cards and an example of the back design. This game also came with a 4-page instruction leaflet. Interestingly, Hochman SE12, Baseballized Playing Cards also came out in 1925.

One of the appealing aspects of collecting antique playing cards is often one of the most overlooked and that is original box designs. Most of the focus of playing card design pertains to the Ace of Spades, the joker and the backs from the deck itself but several of the earlier tuck boxes can be just as attractive, if not more so. To this end, I have selected the fronts and backs of four original tuck boxes from the following National Card Company brands to share with this audience. Their wonderful designs also serve to make them quite suitable for display purposes.

Arrows # 11
Ramblers # 22
Apollo # 33
Crescent # 44

Today, I shall conclude my brief tour through the early known college decks by attempting to provide a little more information about the deck made for Princeton University by L.W. & H.N. Marshall in 1896, listed as CU2 in chapter 28 of the Hochman Encyclopedia. The first photo shows the front of the original telescope case. The back simply has a card pasted showing the back design, which I believe is much more interesting than the pennants shown on the backs for Harvard and Yale. The second photo shows another of the wonderfully detailed Aces of Spades that were issued with these decks by Marshall, together with the joker (again, apparently appearing for the first time) and a sample of the back design. The drawback with this particular issue is that the buildings depicted on the Ace of Spades and the joker are unnamed which is different from how these same two cards were treated in the Harvard and Yale decks. Otherwise, the interesting similarities are the school cheer appearing within the spade pip on the Ace of Spades and what appears to be a peddler of some sort being featured on each of the jokers. I do not know what the significance of this character is, but if anyone happens to know, please feel free to add your knowledge in this regard to this posting.

Today, I thought I would try to provide a little more detail about one of the more recent listings in the download version of the Hochman Encyclopedia. This is the latest listing for a turn of the last century Yale University deck. My photo repeats the images of the back design and the card that is believed to be the joker but also adds a picture of the Ace of Spades which shows that this deck is just an example of AD15 with a special back design. This deck has gold edges and came in a rather ordinary tuck box which just has the card back image as it's front and back panels. The top and bottom panels simply state "Yale" and the two side panels state "Yale Co-operative Corporation". Unfortunately, the top is missing but the remnant of the tax stamp reads "190_", thus, dating it to the first decade of the 20th century in accordance with the later 1903 date shown on the "joker". It remains to be seen if Dougherty used their Indicator brand for any of the other Ivy League schools.

The description for U15 in the Early Makers section of the Hochman Encyclopedia mentions a similar deck to the one shown and I thought I would share some cards from this alternate version, especially the wonderfully detailed Ace of Spades. The Ace of Spades shown in the encyclopedia states "Congress Card Manufactory" on the ribbon encompassing the eagle and it states "C.R Hewet, New York" on the ribbon at the base of the card. In the alternate version of this card, shown here, the word "Card" has been deleted from the middle ribbon and so only "Congress Manufactory" remains on the ribbon encompassing the eagle. The bottom ribbon now reads "No. 2 Astor House, N. York". Other than these two differences, the rest of this card is identical. One other difference appears to be that the pips in this alternate version are outlined whereas the pips on the C.R. Hewet version appear to be solid. The back on this deck is the standard "snowflake" pattern which appeared on many of the early manufacturer's decks.

I came across a couple of early court cards (JH, QS) in my collection of singles and noticed that they had the initials "RS" on them for Robert Sauzade (U32). I decided to compare them to some other early initialed court cards and was interested in their similarities up to and including the placement, which was the same, of each maker's initials. The first card in each photo is from a Caleb Bartlett deck (U9), the second card is from a Geo. Cook late with Abbot & Ely deck (U12a) and the third card is from a Robert Sauzade deck (U32). It was interesting to note that each early maker placed his own initials on these "Bartlett" court cards for identification, apparently in the same place on each card. Given that both Caleb Bartlett and Robert Sauzade decks are listed in the encyclopedia as c.1830, can we say for certain which maker used his initials first and set their placement on each court card? The two single courts are all I have by way of examples of Robert Sauzade's work and he used his name on some of the other court cards instead of his initials, therefore, they are not all the same as those found in Caleb Bartlett's decks. As an aside, an interesting oddity about the Bartlett decks is that the QC is the only court card that has two sets of "CB" initials.