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Playing Card Chat ♠ ♥ ♣ ♦ => A Cellar of Fine Vintages => Topic started by: TheBadJoker on July 28, 2014, 10:52:28 AM
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HELP: Can any of you mavens out there help me with even the country of origin? The cards measure 1 7/8" X 1 1/2" and are on thick stock. There is no writing on any of the cards but I thought the style of the courts might be a clue. Thanks for any help!
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What I'm about to say is complete and total guesswork - but it's educated guesswork with a dash of deductive reasoning!
The rounded corners and lack of indices tells me it's probably either last quarter of the 19th Century or first decade or so of the 20th. Closer to 1890-1900 would be most likely.
The quality is LOW, complete with repeating court designs. Each red card has a black card that looks just like it except for the suit. It's in the Rouen style, sort of, except for the repeating court images. Funny thing - the deck has two suicide Kings and neither is the King of Hearts!
Rouen style didn't yet evolve into International style, and the faces are somewhat reminiscent of the cards used to play Faro, except for those round corners. If I had to guess, I would narrow it down to three possibilities. Rouen, France is one, where it would have been made for import to Great Britain. Somewhere in Great Britain would be another, with London the most likely city. Final guess would be from one of the North American manufacturers active at the time, most of which were either in the Northeast or near the Great Lakes.
That's my two cents, for what it's worth.
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Judy and I both think it is American and made likely for inclusion in some kind of game package - likely a date from 1880-1900 makes sense.
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ThanksTom, that was my opinion also. American, circa 1880 but I didn't think of the game package angle.