PlayingCardForum.com - A Discourse For Playing Cards
Playing Card Chat ♠ ♥ ♣ ♦ => A Cellar of Fine Vintages => Topic started by: musical_racket on April 01, 2014, 05:55:41 PM
-
I just picked up a few weeks ago and I had a few questions if anyone would be able the clarify
According to the Hochman, this deck includes the 7's through aces and each of the normal suits. The deck was sold in sets of either 24 or 32 card decks.
As you can see by the picture, I have only the 7's, 10's, royalty, and aces. However, I have 2 of each, giving me 48 cards. Was it actually made like this at some point or do I have two 24 card decks? Also, I should point out that the back is the later butterfly back. The date code does appear on the bottom, dating the deck around the 1920's. I'm very confused.
-
I just picked up a few weeks ago and I had a few questions if anyone would be able the clarify
According to the Hochman, this deck includes the 7's through aces and each of the normal suits. The deck was sold in sets of either 24 or 32 card decks.
As you can see by the picture, I have only the 7's, 10's, royalty, and aces. However, I have 2 of each, giving me 48 cards. Was it actually made like this at some point or do I have two 24 card decks? Also, I should point out that the back is the later butterfly back. The date code does appear on the bottom, dating the deck around the 1920's. I'm very confused.
I skimmed the rules of Skat, the German version (as opposed to Scat, a very different American game) and it uses German-suited cards ranging from 7-10 inclusive, with three courts and an ace for each suit, totaling 32 cards in a Skat deck. You probably have the remains of two identically-backed Skat decks, perhaps for some unique game the deck's former owner(-s) once played. Note how one of the Aces of Leaves is significantly more faded than the other - it was probably at the top of the deck, face-up, while the deck sat on a shelf somewhere exposed to sunlight!
When seeing the aces I could clearly tell it was a deck targeted to German-Americans and German immigrants - there's a lot of flag/bunting motif in there based on the US flag. The German writing on the Ace of Acorns looked like it might be the name of a German company that USPC teamed with to print the design, but no, it's translation to English is "United States Playing Cards"! The word on the Ace of Leaves atop the USPC Spade doesn't translate from German, but that could simply be due to my own unfamiliarity with the ornate German calligraphic typeface - the "S" in Skat doesn't even resemble an S to me.
Don't put too much faith into the numbers and letter on the Ace of Leaves. It does appear to read "4421Z", and the style of the indices might indicate a manufacture year of 1919, assuming the Z is indeed the year code, but it's been pointed out to me before that the code, when seen on older decks, generally only works when you find just one letter followed by exactly four numbers, whereas this one has the numbers first. Maybe it's a date code, maybe it isn't - I couldn't say either way.
-
I assumed this was an April Fools joke with a name like "German Skat Deck" Zeeee Germans like to replace Cs with Ks.. so im not sure the difference in spelling gets anyone off the hook.
-
I assumed this was an April Fools joke with a name like "German Skat Deck" Zeeee Germans like to replace Cs with Ks.. so im not sure the difference in spelling gets anyone off the hook.
Nope, my friend, Skat is a real thing, been around for a few centuries in all likelihood, and I'm told a number of European games are based on it. Some play with Anglo-American decks after stripping out the unused cards, but many still use the traditional suits, which can vary from one part of Europe to another.
-
USPC did a couple of different Skat decks for recent immigrants who wanted to play their familiar game(s) with familiar cards. They were a popular seller and still not that difficult to find.
-
Hello,
Your deck is complete as it is. It features the so-called Wurttemberg pattern, Wurttemberg being the German region neighbouring France. So the deck was made for German immigrants and was most probably produced from the very end of the ninetieth century until the beginning of World War 2.
Do consult the very useful site of John Mc Leod: www.pagat.com
I quote from there (http://www.pagat.com/national/germany.html#g48):
"48 cards with German suits
The second version has sevens instead of nines (two each of A K O U 10 7 in each suit). It is used in Württemberg for Gaigel and for Binokel (which is similar to the American game Pinochle)."
-
Hello,
Your deck is complete as it is. It features the so-called Wurttemberg pattern, Wurttemberg being the German region neighbouring France. So the deck was made for German immigrants and was most probably produced from the very end of the ninetieth century until the beginning of World War 2.
Do consult the very useful site of John Mc Leod: www.pagat.com
I quote from there (http://www.pagat.com/national/germany.html#g48):
"48 cards with German suits
The second version has sevens instead of nines (two each of A K O U 10 7 in each suit). It is used in Württemberg for Gaigel and for Binokel (which is similar to the American game Pinochle)."
This is AWESOME - thanks for that information! It's an interesting configuration for a deck.
-
That is great to hear! Thank you for the clarification of the deck. So I'm glad that I was not far off from thinking that this was similar to Pinochle. The shop owner who sold this to me kept telling me that they were tarot cards, which I know that they are not. He told me more that was wrong about the deck then nearly anyone I have met, haha. Although it did appear that he had an entire brick of Bee Squeezers for sale!
-
Thank you too. Your cards are no tarot cards, but there are tarot cards produced in the USA that use the same type of figures, with French suits though (Western Playing Card Co., Racine, WI, & Poughkeepsie, NY. Tarock Playing Cards. Complete with 54 cards, circa 1935, not listed in Hochman/Dawson). Here are some pictures.
-
Ah Ha!
Something for the next supplement of the book. Thanks Cartorama.