French 1870 Full Court Antique Playing Cards Hand Stencil Painted

[badpete69]

So I ventured yet into another realm of the playing cards hobby a few days ago by buying a few single old vintage cards. What first caught my eye is this beautiful painted queen of hearts card in fairly good shape







Back of the cards is as follows:






From the seller notes on this card as I do not know anything about this deck

Incredibly Rare French Single full court Queen of Hearts..Cary Collection 332 ( resource guide) Size 3 1/2" x 2 " ------ You are buying a single amazing 1870 Playing Card that was made in France. In the Cary Collection, the archives show this card is from a transparent set that had two versions. One had Erotica Images and the other a more less graphic with simple animations.~~~ The cards were rich in history as each card had shown amazing historic fashion, activities, poses, and simple movements as many are dressed from the period with a bit of flair.  This Full court card from this set are considered extremely rare! This scarce beautiful non transparent card and others are practically obsolete.The two different sets are both rare, but because of the non erotica scenes, the card maker could not use the court cards as a non erotica transparent because they were artistically printed to accommodate that sex act. ~ Overall the printer simple made the cards without the hidden images and only used the suited cards as imaged features.

So when i finished reading that description, I said to myself I must see these eroticas transparent cards an bought one off the same guy the six of spades (which is my favorite non court card). I had to see for myself how this works. I am using some of the guys pics as they are much better than I can get for the transparent effect but I will try to see if I can. When you hold the light to the back of the card, the erotica hidden scene/art appears. I it very cool especially when you consider these cards are over 140 years old.







Let me know what you guys think

[Don Boyer]

The principle behind the see-through/translucent cards is something that a magician named Hofzinser developed from around that era.  T11 and D&D, last time I looked, were both selling updated versions of these cards, but instead of concealing an erotic scene, they hide a card reveal.

The Hofzinser card is usually a red spot card.  When you hold it to the light, the glow effect of passing through the paper makes the red face practically invisible and the card concealed within is usually a black spot card.  It's a great way to do card reveals.

Looks like you got some nice additions to your collection!  I remember seeing the see-through card while it was still up for sale.  I was interested, but it was simply out of my budget.

[52plusjoker]

I will take exception to the incredibly rare description. Over the years we have seen many of these decks [complete] and a single card is far from rare. Mint transparent decks can be worth a tidy amount - say $1500 for a truly mint deck and $750 for a well used but still intact one. There are seven different listings for transparent decks in the Hochman Encyclopedia of American Playing Cards and we did not list the pornographic ones we knew about. In addition there were many European transparent decks, I think especially from France. In many respects, the non-pornographic varieties are more desirable to collectors, and thus worth more, as they tend to be scarcer. As far as what I think Pete, I am far too old to be able to imitate the esoteric position depicted!

[HeartQ]

So am I my sweet man!!!

[CARTORAMA]

That is why you need the cards, Tom (sorry, sorry, that was too easy), and that is why they are not so rare, specially the incomplete decks. The reason is evident: they were kept hidden in drawers and examined at candlelight (no electric light in those days), so that it is not unusual to find them singed.
However, your Queen is the variation of a design created by Armand-Gustave Houbigant (1790-1863) at the beginning of the 19th century, the so-called Royal Cards, meant to replace the Napoleonic ones. Trevor Denning, a great collector who passed away in 2010, has published a book on that type of cards in 1976: Translucent Playing-cards.
And the book and print dealer shop „Pieter Mefferdt“ in Amsterdam has issued a pack of old-fashioned translucent cards in 1983: Erotic Playing Cards, Published by Lord Willwell and Lady Cannotmore at PRIAPOLIS.
Here are some pics from different editions.