Source Art of Classic Mythology Congress 606 Matching Decks

 I have found (with some help!) the source art for the three classical mythology Congress 606 decks with matching jokers: Moon Fairy, Diana, and Berenice. The decks all date from around 1900. Here is a comparison of the original art and the backs of the decks. 

The Moon Fairy deck (and hence the 52PlusJoker logo) is based on an 1891 painting by the German Herman Kaulbach.

Moon Fairy by Herman Kaulbach, 1891

Diana is based on a painting by a Frenchman, Louis Just Maurice Perrey from 1891.

Diana by Louis Maurice Perrey, 1891

The Berenice deck is based on an 1886 painting by the Spaniard Luis Ricard Falero.

Berenice by Luis Ricardo Falero, 1886

I find this artwork striking for a few reasons. 

One, USPC seems to have really been on top of the contemporary classic mythology art scene since they based their decks on artwork that had been painted in the 15 years prior to the card publication.  Someone seems to really have known where to find the finest contemporary classical mythological artwork.

A second thought that I have is about the full frontal nudity of the Berenice deck. I think it's a pretty racy compared to what I thought would be made for the upper crust of American society in the Gilded / Victorian Age.  But, they did make and publish it and as far as I know, there was no outcry or scandal. How sophisticated!

A question in my mind which I had hoped some researchers could shed some light on is: Was the use of this artwork done under a licensing arrangement or was it somehow free of copyright constraints and used under some fair use arrangement.  Anyone?

Here's some background. I'm focusing here on Congress 606 decks with Matching Jokers. In this context, a matching joker (or named joker) means that the joker image is a black and white version of the back design.  Here's the example of Diana with the back of the deck and the joker.

Decks for the Tip Top Upper Crust.  Around 1900, a standard deck bought while travelling or in a general store might cost $0.02. It might be called a Steamboat deck which seems to be not so much a brand as reference to a low end common deck. The USPC (and others) published a number of nicer decks in brands such as Bicycle brand, Sportsmen, and Army Navy. These were better made decks and could cost ~$0.05.  But the wealthy people who played cards at their clubs or invited people to the mansions would buy fancier decks with gold gilded edges and which came in nice two piece colored leather cases. These decks had gorgeous artwork on the back The best known of these brands were the Congress 606 decks.

Here's a view of the gold edge of my Berenice deck.  I wish I was a better photographer so that you could see how the gold edge catches and reflects the light.

Take a look at this total package of a two piece leather case, the gold edge, the matching joker and backs, and mostly the exquisite state-of-the-art painting.

Focusing just on the cards, notice the quality of the artwork on the ace of spades and again, of the reproduction of the artwork of Louis Maurice Perrey.

The Fairy of the Moon artwork by Herman Kaulbach was reproduced in several colors. Here's two:

The sitting on the moon image has been picked up a number of times and has become a genre of jokers: sitting on the moon. And very importantly, it is the logo of the 52 Plus Joker club. Do you about the club? If not, you should if only because it's only $25/year to join including magazines etc and it's just tons of fun.

Here's three variations on the Diana image.

While the standard Congress 606 leather case had printed information, the Berenice case was an exception. Nobody knows why and it stands practically but not entirely alone. Matt Schacht reports that USPCC produced  in 1909 a deck called Waturus, a private steam yacht,  with a similar design.

The regular Congress deck cases including some Congress branding, a call out to the Air Cushion finish, some copyright information, sometimes the date, and the USPCC name along with their city. The printing was embossed and gold.

Want to learn more?

Congress Guy's website is an amazing authoritative source on Congress 606 decks. 
Matt Schacht's list with images of all of the Congress Matching Jokers

My article about the Congress 606 Matching Jokers
My article on the creation of the joker: A New World Invention

For lighter reading, check out the Jokers featuring the Birds and the Bees! 🐦& 🐝!

Or my article about all of my crescent moon jokers (old and modern)

All of the photos here are of items in my collection.

My Number of Jokers

 

VocabularySpellingCity Joker

Does anyone really care about personal metrics?  I don't think anybody really cares about your weight, bank balance, IQ, test scores, or your GPA.  Or your speed on the 100 yard dash. Or how many pushups you can do.   

With that said, I'd like to share one of my numbers: 11,634 (on May 6th, 2025).  That's my number of how many different jokers I have, I just counted. It's a ton of work to count the entire collection. And boring too.

Notice that the collection grew a lot in the last eight year. Nothing like lots of spare time, some visits to different collectors, a few online 52Plus auctions, two 52Plus Conferences, easy access to eEbay, lots of travel, and ... woops, lots of new jokers.

Background: I had 7,346 different jokers as of 2/2021: 5392 on 12/2019: 3,231 on 9/18: and only 2,039 on 6/2017. 

 Of course, my collections keeps growing so the number is a moving target.  A few weeks before, my number was smaller. In a few weeks, it could be larger.

Sometimes, to my chagrin, I discover duplicate jokers which means that I've counted one joker twice so then, when I redo the numbers,  it goes down 😥.

To be clear. I have many many more jokers than that because I have many duplicate jokers.  I only considerthe joker side: I don't generally care about the backside of the joker.  

A more complicated question is what constitutes a joker different than another. The question is subtle when the difference is just the printing, slight differences in card size, tiny control numbers on the cards, and so on. I tend not to count slight differences in the printing or size:  I don’t want looking at my jokers to appear like dozens of nearly identical cards with the differences feeling like an eye tests. If I can't see the difference between the two cards without a magnifying glass, I won't count it as different. 

I generally don't consider different printing control numbers to count as differences with the exception of the Western Publishing Topsy jokers  since the fine print has the back name for each joker and it’s in pretty large type.

I had planned to stop general collecting at ten thousand. But I'm still enjoying it so I'll continue but I'm showing some restraint.

It amused me that I shot through my target number without even noticing. But it is time for me to start specializing and to stem my general purpose joker buying.

Here, btw, is a meme that has made the rounds in the card collecting world. I like since it combines my interest in language and playing cards.

What are these days my specific areas of interest in card collecting?

• Early American jokers - From 1870 until about 1925.
• Congress decks with Matching Jokers
• Jokers on the Joker Poster by USPCC.
• Advertising jokers from the start of the 1900s. 
• Decks from 1870 to 1920 that focus on African Americans, Native Americans, and Chinese Americans.

GoNoodle Playing Care Joker

While there are many categories of jokers,  my favorite category are the topsy-turvy (two headed)  jokers. T 

Topsy Turvy Jokers - There is no upside down!

 .  A topsy turvy jokers are those that are, like so many playing cards, symmetrical along the X axis.  Or more simply, they are the same upside down as right side up. Or there is no way for them to be upside down.  Here's 71 of them as they appear in my joker album.

However, this one is not symmetrical so it doesn't really count as a topsy.

SpellingCity Joker 

If you've read this far, you are probably interested in the mechanics of joker collecting, my system for organizing jokers, and the resources available to help joker and playing card collectors.

Also, not to missed, info on the history of the playing card joker!

My Transformation Decks

A transformation deck of cards has the pips designed into an image on each card. Below for instance is a nine of hearts from a Peter Wood transformation deck: Notice that the there are nine hearts in the image below placed in the exact spots where they would be be in a standard deck. What's cool is how they are integrated into the picture. It's a very very special art form.   

Can you see the nine hearts in this image?
Transformation Playing Cards

Let me point them out for you....

I have a small collection of transformation decks. Why? Because I think they're cool and I love looking at them.

John's Transformation Decks

        Back row, left to right:
The Royal Mischief deck is unopened (unusual for me).  It's contemporary and widely available online.  Patrick Valenza is the artist. Published by US Game Systems.  

Aesops Fables is a contemporary deck, number 29 of 50 hand-made in England by Elaine Lewis. I bought it directly (online) from her. She's created other transformation decks such as "Once Upon a Time." I love her work.  I'd love to have it also available as playable deck even though it would not longer by individually hand-done. She seems to be in Bradford, N England. NE of Manchester.
2000PIPS by Peter Wood. My deck is 613 of 1000 and bought directly from Peter Wood.
Wild! also by Peter Wood might be a semintransformation deck and the first deck published by NewtsGames.

        Front row, left to right.

A Motley Pack - This Australian deck by Sunish Chabba and Ishan Trivedi,was one of a thousand from Kickstarter. This deck is based "On the Cards; Or, A Motley Pack" by Garnet Walch, published in Melbourne in 1875. 

This Julia Podany deck is beautiful and while I have stored it with my transformation decks, I now realize that it's really not a trans deck. Next time I update the picture, this beautiful deck won't be there.

Comic Eclipse Deck  is the first American-designed transformation deck and the first transformation deck to be printed with a joker.

Een Hollands Transformatiespel - my deck is 101 or 150.

Ackermann Bartlett 1818 Transformation Playing Cards USPCC. Only 2068 of this modern reproduction deck were printed but they are widely available.

Let's take some a closer look at each of these decks...

First, the newest (to me) of my transformation decks is the Eclipse Comic Playing Cards Deck. It was published in 1876 by F. H. Lowerre in NY. It is the first American-designed transformation deck to be published and also, the first transformation deck anywhere to be printed with a joker.  Three transformation decks had already been published in the US but they were  reprints (with a few minor changes) of previously published European decks. Dave Seaney's website can tell you more about F.H. Lowerre.

The Comic Eclipse deck, while historic and clever, is not universally admired.  As Dave puts it: "Despite its beauty, it has, in the view of many, some faults, being not as artistic as many of its European predecessors. The themes are not as clever and there are many suit signs that are unused in the overall design."  It sold originally for $0.52 per deck.

The Eclipse deck is in Hochman as T3, P 206. I bought it on the 52PlusJoker Trading Floor 2024 from TbE. It is complete with all 52 cards plus the joker.  While expensive, the deck was worth it for me since it clicked several of my collecting goals: a joker on the joker poster, an very American deck, and a transformation deck, and it's beautiful and original.  Sadly, I don't have the original box, the cards have square corners, and the cards feel more like cardboard, not like playing cards (Is there a better way to describe this?).  A reproduction of the deck was created by PCD in 2019 with blue, green, and red backs. It's widely available.

Eclipse Deck - Joker
Eclipse is the First Transformation deck with a joker.

The Royal Cards, Ace, & Deuce of the Eclipse Transformation Deck

 

Peter Wood - I have two transformation decks that I bought from Peter Wood from the UK around the start of this century. I have a 2000PIPs and Wild!  The box of each deck is signed by Peter Wood himself.

2000PIPS by Peter Wood
Joker 1
Transformation Deck

2000PIPS by Peter Wood
Joker 2
Transformation Deck

 Take a look at how beautifully Peter Wood has worked the pips into the design for each of these cards in the 2000PIPS deck.

2000PIPS by Peter Wood
 Transformation Deck 

 Peter Wood - 2000PIPS 
 Transformation Deck 

The 2000PIPS Deck
Box and Back
Printed by the Design & Print Partnership

The Wild! deck was the first one published by NewtsGames (formerly NewtsCards), a US-based boutique card publisher. 

The Wild! Deck was designed by Peter Wood

In the Wild! cards,  the pips are again woven into the card designs but aren't kept in the position where they would be found in a standard deck of cards. The designs are  animal-themed and meant to appeal to children and animal lovers.  They are copyrighted by Newts Playing Cards at NewtsGames.com, a Playing Card Superstore (sic).

In the Wild! Jokers

Wild! Animal Cards

Before we leave the topic of the UK artist Peter Wood, let me mention that I have two very special jokers by him.  These two are double special since they were signed to Miriam (wife of  Joop Muller) and  the deck was published in a limited edition of 25 hand colored decks and 75 uncolored. .  The next two are also by Peter Woods: His "Goblins and....!" deck. They were hand colored by him. Both are signed by Peter on the back.They are featured as the Joker of the month on Joop's DXPO website in May 2008). You can look at my Peter Wood transformation decks or read about Peter Wood on WOPC by Simon Wintle). These jokers are in the modern art section of the collection.

A Motley Pack. Here's a transformation deck that I added to my collection in late 2019. It was purchased from the Gamblers Warehouse. It was published by Sunnish Chabba and Ishan Trevida of the Guru Playing Card company, Melbourne Australia. It's a tribute of "the beautiful work of Garnet Walch & George Gordan McRae titled "On the Cards. Or, A Motley Pack. A Christmas Annual published in Melbourne in the year 1875..."  The jokers are a diptych.

Ackermann Bartlett 1818 Transformation Playing Cards printed by USPCC. Only 2068 of this modern reproduction deck were printed but they are still available in a few places online.  Here's the ace, deuce, three, jack, queen, and king of each of the four suits.  

Here's two closeups so you can admire the details.

Did the original 1818 deck have three jokers? Two jokers? Did its original publication predate the invention of the joker by around half a century? YES to this last question yet the reproduction deck has these three jokers added to the deck. I think that's Great!

I have done some web surfing and I have learned that there are a number of modern reproductions of old transformation decks available. I think I'll get me some more... Add your suggestions in the comments section

The best index of transformation decks that I have seen is the WOPC Transformation article by Simon Wintle.

There are degrees of transformation decks.... true versus so-called transformation decks! 

It turns out in the esoteric world of  transformation decks,  fine distinctions are made and some people distinguish between "so called" and "true" transformation decks. For instance, the description of my Circus Transformation Playing Card Deck by F Robert Schick (1924-1988) says:  

...in designing this true Transformation Deck (emphasis added), the artist has exercised no poetic license whatsoever with manipulating the sizes, placement or shapes of the 'pip's unlike some of the few "so-called" Transformation Decks which have been designed in recent years.

Stay tuned for my article about my Frankendecks, coming soon!

In the meantime, you should keep reading learning about cards, particularly jokers. Here's some places to go next:

• 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 

52 Plus Joker 2024 Conference: Niagara Falls NY

 This was my second 52 Plus Joker conference and I thoroughly enjoyed it. This second time, I felt that I was more in the mix and understood better what was happening.

This first picture is me with Elettra Deganello who is not only one of the best card designers in the modern world, she also should win prizes for her grace and sweetness. It was wonderful having her at the conference and The Club Deck of 2024 might be the best ever!

  The Congress Guy's license plate!

Here are I am with some notable collectors and wisemen of playing card collecting.

Here I am with the Queen herself - as her last appearance at the 52 Plus Joker Conference - Judy Dawson.

Matt Schacht and I took a walk over to Canada so we could see the Niagara Falls a little better. We could but it was rainy and a little cold so we didn't linger.

My first 52 Plus Joker Conference in Cleveland in 2023. 
The Hochman Encyclopedia of American Playing Cards
Card Collecting Resources such as websites, books, collectors, and museums!