Tuesday, November 14, 2023

More Old American Decks

While I'm primarily a joker collector, I have also become a bit of a collector of old American decks (to support my joker collecting).

So rather than let the decks continue to accumulate haphazardly on my shelves and in boxes, I've decided to get them organized and stored properly.  

Here's 20 decks that I just cataloged. I don't have a display for them yet.  So I'm introducing:

                    Box 1, Row 3, Levels one and two
                        20 Old American Decks


Row 1

Top-Top Perfection Playing Cards. Leather case. Hochman P118 PU2 #350. Philadelphia, c 1887.Jolly Joker jack-in-the-box style.


Steamboat 7-11. RU13 Kalamazoo, Hochman P129. Joker with people picking cotton




Recruits, Willis Russell. Hochman P125,RU1. 1906. Uncle Sam with three people



Perfection Playing Cards - regal joker


Leader. Perfection Playing Card. Hochman P118 #325 c1890. Little Joker



Row 2

Globe Steamboats. Hochman P38 L52ac 18887 2 boxes - Seated brooding joker



246 American Playing Cards - (not in Hochman) Geometric design joker


 

Brownies. American Playing Card. Hochman P42 L76 #35.  Other Brownie decks from Kalamazoo cards are from National Playing Card Company on P 112-114. Brownies on building. 

Take a close look at the this cartoon on the joker. See the Uncle Sam figure on the lower left panel that is about to have a huge snowball dropped on him by NCC? Could it be, as suggested by Dave Seeney and Matt Schacht on the FB Jokers forum that the NCC (National Card Company) is ambushing Uncle Sam (the American Card Company)? Maybe:

    "U.S." is USPCC

    CC maybe Consolidated Card Co (NYCC)

    AD Andrew Dougherty

    SPC Standard Playing Card Read about the Brownie joker theory as explained by (or attributed to) Palmer Cox (the inventor of the Brownies) himself!



Capitol USPC. Hochman P92 US10 #188 1896.



Wild Frontier Picket Russell Morgan - joker man with musket. 1914 US30a Picket #515 on page 101 of Hochman.


Row 3

Panama Canal Souvenir cards. Hochman P250 S50. 1926 - Destroyed tower on joker



Cabinet #707 US Playing Cards, Russell & Morgan PTG Co.c1890. Cabinet P93 US12a Pibus Unum


 

Tourists by Russell -  P91 of Hoffman, US9 Tourists #155.  "`Tourists were graded between Tigers and Sportsmans. From an 1887 advertisement, "They are a happy medium between unenameled cards (Tigers and Steamboats) and enameled cards (from Bicycles upward), having the finish of the former and the same style back as the latter.

Pan American Exposition. Hochman P250 XX18 1901. Notice that the back features the North and South American Continents holding hands.



Waldorf Welcoming Lady, The Brothel Deck. Waldorf #240. A Dougherty, NY c1909. Hoffman lists P79 AD47 Waldorf #230, c1915


Row 4
Success Deck, #28 c1906. Hoffman P129, RU12 Kalamazoo.


Army Navy USPC Russell & Morgan Factories. I haven't found this exact on in Hochman but there is on P86, a #3032 (versus this 303 one) US5h c 1910.Steamship joker.


Trophy Whist #39, USPC 1895 -  P98 Hochman, Elaborate vase on joker


Valor Playing Cards S25 - Bay State Playing Card Co - horn player on horse 

Manikan Cigars, Goodall & Sons, London. Two headed jester (YES, not American. Oops!)



Other posts about old decks in my collection:


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Thanks for your input and for reading and thinking about jokers.