Unusual New Discovery

[tobyedwards]

The deck I am introducing today appears to be a mix of several known decks by NYCC and Dougherty, yet it purports to have been made by an entity called New York Card Co. with no mention of the word "Consolidated" in it's name. The Ace of Spades bears certain similarities to both NY39 and NY45 but the eagle has been replaced by a crown and the hand holding cards within the spade pip is somewhat comparable to NY46b.  The Best Bower is similar to NY46 but the eagle has again been replaced, this time with a shield and flags. This card also states "New York Card Factory" which is the same name as that shown on the Ace of Spades for NY46b. The back design is very similar to a standard pattern found on several earlier standard square corner decks from the 1850-1860 period, particularly those by Dougherty. Speaking of Dougherty, the courts from this deck also appear to me to be in his style. The overall execution of this deck seems a bit crude to me as the designs are a little sloppy. I am left to wonder if this is, indeed, a product of NYCC or if it came from an imitator, either domestic or foreign. Regardless, I find it quite interesting.

[tobyedwards]

I am resurrecting this older post because I came across previous mention of this particular Ace of Spades while rereading my earlier editions of Clear The Decks, therefore, this isn't exactly a new discovery although at least I discovered that it is a marked deck. A picture of this Ace of Spades was shown in Tom Ransom's detailed and informative article on marked cards in Vol. IV Number 4 from October 1990 on page 16 where it is referenced as MC41 but he did not show the back of the card. He showed a similar, but different, early marked pattern back referenced as MC40 but the markings on the back of my deck pertaining to the identification of the face of each card are in the number and position of certain leaves in the pattern. The second picture of this particular Ace of Spades, albeit quite a soiled example, appeared in Vol. XVIII Number 3 from September 2004 on page 12 in an article about a lot of old playing card singles of which this was one. A different pattern back was shown and I believe it, too, is a marked back although I would need a picture of a second back from that same deck in order to determine how it is marked.

[torcams]

Thank you Toby - an informative post on a curious deck!

[Don Boyer]

I am resurrecting this older post because I came across previous mention of this particular Ace of Spades while rereading my earlier editions of Clear The Decks, therefore, this isn't exactly a new discovery although at least I discovered that it is a marked deck. A picture of this Ace of Spades was shown in Tom Ransom's detailed and informative article on marked cards in Vol. IV Number 4 from October 1990 on page 16 where it is referenced as MC41 but he did not show the back of the card. He showed a similar, but different, early marked pattern back referenced as MC40 but the markings on the back of my deck pertaining to the identification of the face of each card are in the number and position of certain leaves in the pattern. The second picture of this particular Ace of Spades, albeit quite a soiled example, appeared in Vol. XVIII Number 3 from September 2004 on page 12 in an article about a lot of old playing card singles of which this was one. A different pattern back was shown and I believe it, too, is a marked back although I would need a picture of a second back from that same deck in order to determine how it is marked.

Most interesting - the deck is marked at the design level, rather than after manufacture.  Kevin Reylek will be giving a talk at the upcoming convention on marked playing cards; he might be interested in this bit of information.