Playing Cards

Comment

Comment by Bill Gosling on November 23, 2009 at 10:16am

Paul, there are a variety of round decks, an early one being the Globe Card Co.'s Globe Playing Cards from the 1870's and 1880's. There are many modern ones, as well as some made in England, Spain and Japan. The older ones are very expensive, but the newer ones easy to find. What is fun is to look for the different colors used in the courts and the number of court heads. While yours has four, some have five and even six figures in the small circles.

Please send me an e-mail (wgosling@umich.edu) for some other information I can send off-site. Bill

Comment by Bill Gosling on November 23, 2009 at 10:07am

Dave, as you contemplate reproducing some of these images on various materials, remember that the decks of recent years, and perhaps back a far as 1923, are copyrighted. Any commercial use of the image would require copyright clearance from the producer. If European, the date goes back even further, I think it is still about 1874 in Britain. Just a thought.

Bill

Comment by Dave Dubé on November 23, 2009 at 12:18am

Hey thanks! I'm thinking even contemporary paper would be nice for something different like this deck!

Comment by Dave Dubé on November 21, 2009 at 7:03am

Paul! It looks like I have to add Whitman Publishing to Bill's list. Thanks for the images.

Comment by Bill Gosling on November 19, 2009 at 4:51pm

Can someone tell me how to change the picture that the system supplied when I first signed on? Thanks.

Dave, my e-mail address is wgosling@umich.edu. If you'll send me a message, I'll supply a list of playing card manufacturers whose stationery you might keep an eye out for. Don't want to clug this site with a very long listing.

Bill

Comment by Dave Dubé on November 19, 2009 at 6:44am

Could you do that Bill? My 'thing' is putting my art work on old commercial paper. See my web site: oldpaperart.blogspot.com I saw a piece of USPCC paper a couple of months ago, as it was in a lot of Cincinnati paper on eBay. I would certainly start looking for billhead or letterhead from them as well as other companies if I knew what company names to be looking for. Perhaps some of the other playing card collectors already have 'go-with' paper, and in that case, I'd just like to make them aware of what I'm doing with the related old paper.

Comment by Bill Gosling on November 18, 2009 at 10:35pm

Dave, I am not sure who made this deck as there is no definite mention in the work I referenced. Based on the box remnant, it is one of several manufacturers active at that time. You ask specifically who else made these cards, and I want to be clear I was just making a guess with USPCC. If you would like information on other card manufacturers active at the time, I will dig out a rference for you.

Bill

Comment by Dave Dubé on November 18, 2009 at 11:59am

Bill,

Could you possibly tell me who else besides the United States Playing Card Company made these decks?

Comment by Bill Gosling on November 18, 2009 at 9:58am

The deck you found is one of a series described in the "Hochman Encyclopedia of American Playing Cards". [More on that in a moment] It is one of ten beauiful card backs for Edison Mazda designed by Maxfield Parrish. "There are different jokers and Aces in this series and each deck also comes with an extra descriptive or 'picture' card. The many Parrish collectors actively collect these decks, seeking even a single card of each back." They were produced between 1919 and 1931. Encyc. p. 202.

You did extremely well to find even an incomplete Parrish deck at this price. They were issued for General Electric -Edison, and the joker shows an early electric light bulb. If the second part of the box were present, and I think it did have an outer sleeve, it would likely name the manufacturer. The most common one would have been the United States Playing Card Company in Cincinnati, Ohio, at that time, though it could have been one of several others as well.

As to the Encyclopedia, it lists American cards from earliest productions up to the mid-20th century. The paperback edition is $45.00, less expensive than the $75.00 hard cover and also has a $15.00 price guide sold separately. The full citation is:

Dawson, Tom and Judy. The Hockman Encyclopedia of American Playing Cards. Stamford, CT, U.S. Games Systems,Inc., 2000. Price guide, same year and publisher.

A very good deck in the price guide lists for about $100.00.

I'll return late with more background information on cards. I currently have abobut 250 books in my reference library on the history of plaing cards, and some 3800 decks.

Bill

Comment by Dave Dubé on November 16, 2009 at 11:56am

These are FABULOUS! Looks to be an advertising deck as well. Can you contact me via my email addy, please. I'd like to get a high-res scan of the Parrish image on the card, since it incorporates the Edison advertising.
email: ddcachets@gmail.com

I put my art on old paper, btw. I now have something more to look for. I wonder who made the cards for Edison.

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