Hycrest Modern Royalty

[Daniel Wilson]

Here's one of the crown jewels of my collection, purchased through the
52+Joker club auction last year.

The Hycrest Modern Royalty deck dates to 1931, and is perhaps one
of the best examples of Art Deco playing card design.  This deck came
with the pictured joker and a telescoping box.  The edges of the cards
are gilded.  The cards are in near-mint condition, truly astounding for a
nearly 85-year-old deck.

Though my deck is yellow, I've seen green and purple ones as well.
The brownish areas on the back are actually gold, which unfortunately
doesn't photograph well.

Note the large suit symbols behind the heads of the court cards.
The indices also have an unusual font.

I must admit that I don't take this deck out very often, though it is one
of my favorites.  After all, there's something both intimidating and
humbling in handling a deck of cards that's older than your parents,
an item that wasn't supposed to have survived for as long as it has...
that, and I'd rather not keep such a treasure within reach of the children.   ^_^;

[jwats01]

That is a very cool looking deck. It obviously captures the art deco style extremely well.

Thanks for sharing!

[Anthony]

Those are fantastic Daniel, Art Deco has always been one of my favorite styles, I think I found my new research project.

Thanks for sharing the pics 

[52plusjoker]

This has always been a very desirable deck to add to one's collection - and, as they are relatively scarce, one usually has to step up with the dollars.

[bhong]

Thanks for sharing Daniel.

It is a truly beautiful deck. Is it USPCC printed or one of the many companies that eventually got bought up by USPCC? Sometimes I wish USPCC would re-print some of their older stuff even for a limited run.

[52plusjoker]

It was issued in 1931 by a long defunct company in New York named Hycrest Playing Card Co. Only deck we know of that they produced. Perhaps it was just a 'business' name for a printing company or did they have the cards produced by someone like USPC as a special run? Probably the former.

[Don Boyer]

It was issued in 1931 by a long defunct company in New York named Hycrest Playing Card Co. Only deck we know of that they produced. Perhaps it was just a 'business' name for a printing company or did they have the cards produced by someone like USPC as a special run? Probably the former.

I would guess the latter.  The Ace of Spades has a letter and four digits following it, below the spade and above the deck's name.  That "L" in the code would indicate a printing date of 1929, and I wouldn't consider it impossible that the cards were held for a while before release, considering the state of the economy following October of '29.  It's feasible that they may have been in the possession of a shipping company or a warehouse that went bankrupt and thus it took some time for the company that ordered the deck to get them out of legal limbo.  But, as you've mentioned before, sometimes USPC doesn't stick hard and fast to that rule.  Even more likely was that they themselves had financial issues to deal with before they could sell them.  There's also a chance that it was one of USPC's subsidiary companies they owned at the time, perhaps.

Lots of speculation, but no solid proof beyond the existence of that AoS code.

BTW: if you click on the picture to get a separate window with the image in it, then click again to zoom in on it, you can actually see the metallic ink on the card back.  You're right, though, in that metallic inks are notoriously difficult to photograph and make them look like the original.  Then again, I doubt you'd get the same level of gold luster from a brick of gold as from a photo of that same brick - the brick would undoubtedly be brighter.

[52plusjoker]

It was issued in 1931 by a long defunct company in New York named Hycrest Playing Card Co. Only deck we know of that they produced. Perhaps it was just a 'business' name for a printing company or did they have the cards produced by someone like USPC as a special run? Probably the former.

I would guess the latter.  The Ace of Spades has a letter and four digits following it, below the spade and above the deck's name.  That "L" in the code would indicate a printing date of 1929, and I wouldn't consider it impossible that the cards were held for a while before release, considering the state of the economy following October of '29.  It's feasible that they may have been in the possession of a shipping company or a warehouse that went bankrupt and thus it took some time for the company that ordered the deck to get them out of legal limbo.

Shame on me for missing the Ace clue. Just so different from anything else produced by USPC. Somewhere I have a listing from USPC of all their private brands. When I get out from under a few issues I'll look for it,