neat!

I was very pleased to be able to finally resolve a long standing mystery within the category of souvenir playing cards.
When I first starting collecting souvenirs about 10 years ago, I came across a single card with an "Italia" back and a view on the face with Italian captions.  While the back is very similar to the S28 Hawaiian or SX17 Paris Exposition cards by USPCC, the quality is not quite as nice (especially the brilliance of the gold border) and the Italian language captions suggested something made locally for the Italian market.

I reached out to all of the big souvenir collectors and I found a couple collectors with singles, but no one had ever seen a complete deck nor was aware of its documentation in any references.

I finally found a complete deck lurking in Italy.

The courts are Kings, Queens and Dukes of the House of Savoy (Kingdom of Sardinia, Kingdom of Italy).  The aces (1 pips) are important members of Government and key figures in the unification of the country.  The remaining pips are views throughout Italy.  The joker is the coat of arms of the Kingdom of Italy.

I'd guess this deck dates from c1900 which is when the similar USPCC decks were made.  It has gold edges.  There is no box.  The maker is unknown but I still believe it's Italian.

Great info Toby - some very attractive decks!

Thanks Toby - great info.  The Colombiano deck continues to elude me after all these years...

I was recently able to pick up a single joker from the Chicago Card Co.'s Floral series, noted in Hochman as L25a.

This deck and L25 have long captured my interest since I recall the Dawsons and Wally Mach referring to the unusual and special courts which Judy described as "perhaps her favorite of the standard American courts"

Does anyone have an example of L25 or L25a with these courts?  I'd love to see some images of them.  I see the kings on the WWPCM.

Another lucky find in the Congress category - the scarcely seen 1903 variant of "Yacht".  Not great condition, but you take what you can find!  The box indicates that this was originally sold at a Boots stationers in England.

After seeing the great Brunswick-Balke Collender billiard back design and special Palmer Cox "brownies" joker on Ebay a while back, it immediately became a "most wanted" advertising deck to me.

I finally managed to acquire a copy, however instead of the special joker, it contains the early National PCC NU8 "fish bowl" joker, along with the NU8 ace of spades.

Does anyone out there in cardland have the deck with the special joker?  I am very  interested to see what box and ace of spades that version might have come with!

Hi Toby,

I must admit I always read the "gold borders" as meaning gold edges, however now I see that is not what was being described.   I have the girl standing at the beach, but she is in a No. 504 box.  Is it possible the numbers correspond to the different backs?

more pics

more pics

more pics

I was fortunate to have come across a coveted piece of ephemera in the form of a USPCC sample folder dating from 1908.  With the exception of one page of "Flinch" cards, the entire book is devoted to advertising cards.  When I purchased the book it was without a full appreciation of all the pages contained herein - some of which contain some rarely seen backs and jokers.  I have included pictures of all pages below:

Hello Touya,

I have every reason to believe you are correct with date code "A" beginning in 1898.  I was going to suggest talking to Joseph Pierson, but it appears your research already made its way to him as referenced by a recent instagram post.  I do not believe I have any decks with an "A" code, but I have quite a few Jokers with "B" from 1899.