PlayingCardForum.com - A Discourse For Playing Cards
Playing Card Chat ♠ ♥ ♣ ♦ => A Cellar of Fine Vintages => Topic started by: FNGMedia on September 27, 2022, 08:53:56 AM
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Hello there! I recently acquired a small collection of playing cards that some of you might find interesting. I'm hoping you experts can help me in identifying these items because this is not my area of expertise.
First up we have a red leather case with some miniature playing cards. I did find the card design, but on some standard-sized cards in a different case. So my question on all of these items is threefold -
What is it?
What is it worth?
Should I keep it or sell it?
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and insight with me!
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Next we have a really nice navy blue case with the initials W.H.P. embossed. They're KEM rooster cards that can be dated but I'm also very curious about the case itself.
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I do have one more item to post pictures of, but I want to get a good sleep in before I handle it as it is very fragile. I'll leave you with one picture of it to ponder and will post more pictures tomorrow.
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Top deck in the zipper case looks pretty generic, probably not worth much. The KEM deck from 1950 is an uncommon deck, and KEM had a period of time where they used these hard clamshell cases. They came in various styles and colors. I have a number of them. Yours was monogrammed for someone. Deck and case could be worth $40-50.
If you like them, keep them. If you don?t, try to sell them.
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I do have one more item to post pictures of, but I want to get a good sleep in before I handle it as it is very fragile. I'll leave you with one picture of it to ponder and will post more pictures tomorrow.
That red box looks like it's made of Bakelite - probably intended for holding one, maybe two decks (I can't tell how thick it is in the photo, but I'd guess its capacity is only one deck). Nearly anything made of Bakelite has some monetary value to collectors of Bakelite items, especially because of how lovely and delicate these items could be - Bakelite was a precursor to modern plastics, but was much more brittle, so examples of it don't often survive as well. Bakelite was popular with makers of small radios - not pocket-sized but plug-in models large enough to sit on a shelf or table - and Kem used them at one point for deck cases, eventually abandoning it like most companies that used it when sturdier plastics became more common - circa 1940s.