The Hochman Encyclopedia of American Playing Cards

I'm writing this article for people interested in getting a little deeper into collecting historical (anything before say 1960) American playing cards. I have some fantastic news. There is a fantastic resource which serves as the ultimate guidebook to American playing cards. This invaluable resource is known as The Hochman Encyclopedia of American Playing Cards. Here's the basics:

What is it?  The contemporary Hochman Encyclopedia was printed in 2000 in both hardback and softback by American Game Systems. Judy and Tom Dawson are the authors.  In addition, a digital version, the  second edition, was published in 2014. 

There are 33 chapters in  Hochman. The first chapter is about Collecting Playing Cards and the second chapter is about the organization of the Encyclopedia. I personally am greatly pleased to see that the Hochman Encyclopedia - like my website - takes the question of taxonomy and organization very seriously.  The chapter explains the organization of the Encyclopedia like this:

Chapters 3 to 15 cover standard decks with the earliest manufacturers in the earlier chapters

Chapter 16 is new material containing a brief history of Canadian manufacturers and listing of known Canadian decks

Chapter 17 deals extensively with advertising decks

Chapters 18 and 19 deal with the old Volume II categories of transformation and insert decks

War and political categories are covered in Chapters 20 and 21

Chapter 22 covers the entertainment category

Chapters 24 to 27 deal with exposition, souvenir and railway decks

Chapters 23 and 28 to 33 cover the remaining categories of the old Volume III which are bridge/whist, non-revoke, colleges and unions, fortune telling and tarot, oddities, etc. 

Hochman Descriptions and Coding System - Hochman has a coding system so that each deck that it catalogs has a unique code.  These codes are widely used in the card collecting community. Here are two example entries from the digital version (which has more color than the printed one):

History of Hochman -  The origins (Again, I'm quoting or paraphrasing) go back to 1976 when Gene Hochman published Part I and Part II of The Encyclopedia of American Playing Cards. These two volumes constituted a comprehensive, illustrated listing of certain categories of known non-standard American playing card decks. Gene  published Part III in 1978, Part IV in 1979 and Parts V and VI in 1980 and 1981. These four books were a prodigious effort.

Around 1989, Gene Hochman asked Tom & Judy Dawson if they would help rewrite the encyclopedia and arrange the publishing with Stuart Kaplan of US Games. Hochman passed away in 1994 while the massive revision work was underway. In 2000, Tom and Judy Dawson published the Encyclopedia consolidated into one volume through US Game Systems and this new edition became the go-to resource for all collectors of vintage or antique American playing cards.  In 2004, a supplement and price guide was published.  In 2014, Tom and Judy published an updated digital version with more color images, more data and information, and incorporated the 2003 supplement.

What's Available and How To Buy It

The Digital Second Edition is available from the Conjuring Arts Research Center for $17.99.
A hardcover first edition is available from Amazon for ~$30 or in softback (used) for ~$40.
American Game Systems' website says that they are sold out of the Encyclopedia but have the 2003 supplement and price guide available for $9. (Usability note on the digital version. It is published in the  .pub format which I find awkward. I converted it via a free online site to a PDF for simplicity of use).

The Future - There has been an enormous amount of research in the last decade so that most collectors agree that Hochman is ready for an update. I would mention than an update would require significant collaboration just as the original and the updates of Hochman were - if their forwards are to be believed - massive collaborations of different researchers, collectors, and collaborators.  It is unclear who might lead the next update effort and how it might work. If anyone is eager and able to take it on, I would be willing to help.

 Tom and Judy Dawson were royalty in the playing card world due to their creation of the modern version of the Hochman Encyclopedia.   Tom and Judy Dawson were collectors of antiques and playing card ephemera for over 40 years.  Before his retirement as a Certified Public Accountant, Tom was a senior partner at the accounting organization Deloitte. Judy pursued  her interests in the areas of antique collecting, gardening, and home design, in addition to having raised their six children. 

Tom and Judy served as officers of 52 Plus Joker, a club for those interested in antique American and International playing cards. Judy also edited the club's quarterly publication, Clear the Decks, for pretty much forever. Sadly, Tom passed away a few years ago. In 2017, the Cary Collection using funds from the Mary Flagler Cary Fund  acquired the playing card collection of Tom and Judy Dawson. 

The Doyenne, The Queen: Judy Dawson with John Edelson
at the 2023 Annual Conference of 52 Plus Jokers in Cleveland

Other articles collectors should read about  resources for card collectors:

First of all this website is mostly about how I organize a very large (many thousands) joker collection.  I've published a visual taxonomy.  Check it out.

• Resources for card and joker collecting that I find useful. Facebook groups, museums, websites, books, publishers, and other collectors. But above all, the Hochman Encyclopedia and the World of Playing Cards website.
• The USPC Company Joker Poster and my ambition (obsession?)  of getting all 72 of them.
  
• Joker Displays that I've framed and put on the wall.
• My inquiry into the emergence of the joker  in the 1860 and 70s in the USA. Also, my Old American Jokers Organized by Publisher. Eg Perfection,  Dougherty , ARRCO, or Standard. 
•  I'm particularly focused on the Matching Jokers by Congress, published 1898-1904. 
• The Mechanics of my Joker Collecting
• Other joker collectors that I've met f2f: Dan Nordquist ; Joop, Fred, Ronald, and Jelle, and a bit about me. And an article about attending the 2023 52PlusJoker Conference in Cleveland and the 2024 in Niagara Falls.
• Portrayals of African Americans on Playing Cards and Rory 

Jokers: Performers with Cards

These jokers feature showman who are using playing cards as a primary prop.  They seem to mostly be from Europe, Belgium, and The Netherlands.  There are other articles about performing without playing cards (there's a complete different section if they are dancing or if they are juggling with cards or juggling without cards).

The joker collection is primarily organized by visual themes. This section will start with a few examples of Performers with Cards, then there is a listing of all the jokers in this section. There are thirteen pages with nine featuring jokers with performers using cards or when the performer is dressed as a card.

I particularly like this next joker with a king with marionettes of a king on his knee before the queen. It's from 1910 and is known as the Bee French Whist #68 NY65. P63. 

Here are the pages of jokers with performers with playing cards. 

In this first page
R1C1 (Row 1, Column 1) is the joker from De Lands Automatic Playing Cards. N2. S.S. Adams. Asbury Park, NJ. 1918. P301

R1C2: 

Here are some related types jokers that you really must see. So quick through quickly and continue your tour!

1. Dancing with or without jesters wands 
2. Performing with cards or without cards  
3. Juggling things 

   

   Juggling Jesters

4. Juggling cards  
1. Scatterman variations
5. Sitting - Forward vs Sideways
6. Standing Jesters 
7. Head Shots or Busts. On a stick, heads, hands no wand, hand with a wand  
8. Fighters! ie Jokers with swords, etc
9. Clown Jokers 

Perfection, Jokers, and Decks from the late 1800s

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?

PU1 TIP-TOP #350, Philadelphia, c1885 (Image from Hochman)

PU1a TIP-TOP #350, Philadelphia, c1886 (Image from Hochman)

My collection includes the following three Perfection decks although they're not in Perfect condition:

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.

Perfection Playing Cards PU2 TIP-TOP #350, Phili c1887

Here are my two PU4 decks., both of which are pretty worn. 

Perfection Cards PU4 LEADERs #325, NY c1890 Little Joker

 

Perfection Cards PU4 LEADERs #325, NY c1890 Uniformed Joker

Here are five Perfection jokers that I have (I don't have these decks).   PU3, three PU4s, and a PU10 from 1885, 1890, and 1890.  (YES. My note in the photograph should have said PU3...). The backs are shown below them.

 

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."

Sources:

Rod Starling on WOPC: https://www.wopc.co.uk/usa/perfection  
Hochman Encyclopedia of American Playing Cards. Digital Version.