In 1885 or maybe a year earlier, the Perfection Playing Card Company emerged with an office first in Philadelphia, then in New York. Its independent life was to end only nine years later. I find their creative contribution compelling during their short life.
Their first known deck is copyright 1885, PU1. The second is PU1a c1886, also Philadelphia. I have neither the PU1 nor 1a, joker nor deck. My collection is not perfect. Here (imaged from Hochman) are the the first two Perfection jokers and decks noting again, that I do not have these (whereas most images on the site are from my collection).
Was this joker by Perfection in 1885 the first one to have people-on-the-moon?
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| PU1 TIP-TOP #350, Philadelphia, c1885 (Image from Hochman) |
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| PU1a TIP-TOP #350, Philadelphia, c1886 (Image from Hochman) |
One PU2 TIP-TOP #350, Philadelphia, c1887. This is the middle deck below.
Two PU4 LEADERs #325, New York, c1890. These are the decks on the far left and right below.
The PU2 is in an old leather case but other than that, the deck is is fine shape including the gold edges. Looking more closely at my PU2 below, this joker and ace of spades exactly match the Hochman example of PU2. Notice the charming comment by the Jolly Joker: "HERE WE ARE AGAIN". This Perfection joker is particularly important to me because it's also part of my effort to collect all the jokers on the Card Museum Joker Poster (Row 5, Column B). The Joker Poster Key has it listed as the Hartford Safety Bike. Perfection Playing Card Co. c 1895.
BUT, my deck identification is based on the jokers and Hochman asserts that the jokers were used promiscuously across different decks: the decks were more defined by their aces of spades. So let's look more closely.
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| Perfection Playing Cards PU2 TIP-TOP #350, Phili c1887 |
Here are my two PU4 decks., both of which are pretty worn.
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| Perfection Cards PU4 LEADERs #325, NY c1890 Little Joker |
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| Perfection Cards PU4 LEADERs #325, NY c1890 Uniformed Joker |
I also have this advertising deck in my collection. Because the joker character is so similar to the jack in the box joker PU2 above, I include it here as part of asking if there was a direct link or just a ripoff. Since the ace of spades is so different, I think it's not formally related. But there is no info that I can find about Cobb Mfg Co of Boston or Regal Tailoring.
Perfection seems to have been started in Philadelphia in 1895 or slightly earlier, then moved to New York. The owners were Henry M.
Rosenbaum, Edward
Stern, and Charles Dittman.
Perfection's life as an independent corporation ended in 1894 although it continued as a brand until 1915 within the corporation. The digital Hochman explains:
On July 20th 1894, the Perfection Playing Card Co. of New York, now under the management of Messrs. Charles Dittman, Bertram Grossbeck and George F. Jones, agreed to sell the business to a group consisting of USPC (50%), NYCC (25%) and Andrew Dougherty (25%). Their desire was to keep Perfection intact and conducted as a separate business, under the control of the three firms that contributed to its purchase. As USPC eventually absorbed all of the companies participating in the purchase of Perfection, we can sum up by saying “Perfection was absorbed by USPC in 1894."
On July 20th 1894, the Perfection Playing Card Co. of New York, now under the management of Messrs. Charles Dittman, Bertram Grossbeck and George F. Jones, agreed to sell the business to a group consisting of USPC (50%), NYCC (25%) and Andrew Dougherty (25%). Their desire was to keep Perfection intact and conducted as a separate business, under the control of the three firms that contributed to its purchase. As USPC eventually absorbed all of the companies participating in the purchase of Perfection, we can sum up by saying “Perfection was absorbed by USPC in 1894."
Sources:
Rod Starling on WOPC: https://www.wopc.co.uk/usa/perfection
Hochman Encyclopedia of American Playing Cards. Digital Version.
Hochman Encyclopedia of American Playing Cards. Digital Version.
