[acetofive] Selected Cards c1860+

[acetofive]

Cartes Indiennes, B.P. Grimaud, France, c1895. Printed in chromolithography. Salmon-Peach courts. Pip card faces are shown oriented with the backs right side up.

[acetofive]

Cartes Indiennes, B.P. Grimaud, France, c1895. Printed in chromolithography. Light Green-Cyan backs, Teal-Blue courts. This version has "France" printed along the sides. Pip card faces are shown oriented with the backs right side up (note that for this version the background art repeats).

[acetofive]

Earlier this year I ran across an article by Kamayani Sharma, "How Mughal badshahs and begums became a source of inspiration for 19th-century French playing cards." which is about Cartes Indiennes (scroll.in > culture and life style). She cites numerous possible sources of inspiration for the courts so I started looking some up. One of them, "Costume Historique," is a six volume work published in 1888 by Auguste Racinet in Paris, it details clothing and fashion from antiquity through the 19th century. All six volumes are available online. The color plates below are from Volume 3 (having to do with India). Several of the color plates share nearly identical traits with the court cards. Below are some illustrations I made pointing them out.

The illustrated figures on the plates are in turn based on 17th-18th century Indian Court paintings from Ambroise Firmin-Didot's private collection, which has since passed into private collections and museums. I haven't been able to track down much of these, but there are plenty of clues.

Racinet goes into great detail about their clothing, accessories, and motifs. Where the text identifies a specific figure, by name or title, I make a note of that in the illustration. You can find V3 complete here (in French, The Smithsonian Institution's copy). The relevant pages start at about p52. It's also available in consolidated form from Taschen on Amazon.

Costume Historique was published in 1888, Cartes Indiennes in 1895, a few years apart, both in Paris. These artists would have been contemporaries. Is it possible the same artists worked on both projects?

[Bradius]

That is amazing and cool research. Thanks so much for sharing. It is great to get some more perspective on such an iconic deck.

[Honeybee]

Is it possible the same artists worked on both projects?

Looking at plate 1 in particular - that simply must be the case

Ato5, are you going to put your fantastic research on World of Playing Cards?

[acetofive]

I was curious about the three names in the lower left corners of the plates with links to the cards - These are all contemporary 19th century French lithographers known to be working in or around Paris: L.Llanta, Durin (probably F.Durin), and Chataignon.

Not much is known about F.Durin but the few things I saw align with the work seen on the plates. I could find only one commissioned portrait by L.Llanta and no other info. Chataignon's work on the other hand appears to be prolific and easily found.

Honeybee - I agree. My jaw dropped when I saw that plate from the book. I think it would be hard to argue against a strong connection between the appearance of that book and the production of these cards.

Thank you Bradius. Part of what I really enjoy about this hobby - history. And those cards are just beautiful to look at.

[acetofive]

Dondorf, Club Karte, No 147, 1912-1923. Introduced about 1860, these courts remained in print until 1933. Braun lists 10 variations and more than 50 numbered editions.

[brownsl]

It has been a while since I have visited and the recent updates are fantastic. Thanks for sharing!

[acetofive]

Luxusspielkarte, Dondorf, No. 402. c1923-c1929. Figures in medieval costumes, designed by Austrian painter Hans Printz (1865-1925). Braun mistakenly labeled these cards "Prinz," as in Prince ("Prinz Karte") without mentioning Hans as the artist, and that mistake continues uncorrected in most accounts. According to Peter Endebrock, the tax stamp which appears on the AH below was in use 1923-1929. Schultz ("Dondorf Spielkarten," page 118) dates the tax stamp on another sample to 1914. Braun dates the cards 1926-1933.

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Gerich # 29, 1988. Artwork by Georgina Harvey, printed by Karl, Bath, England. One of about 20 packs. Each card painted by hand, the packs are highly variable in coloring, as are many of Karl's decks.

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Gerich No 29 Box -

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I made a Blurb book using the scans I have of my collection. I picked the decks I liked the most and put together a reasonably sized book. I figured if I ever have to sell my collection due to age or whatever, this might be one way to remember it.

[Honeybee]

Absolutely brilliant A to 5

[acetofive]

Thanks Honeybee! A friend sold his collection - it required a walk-in closet, 50 or more years worth - because he didn't want to burden his family with selling it as he got older. He told me recently he misses it. So I thought I'd try this.

[acetofive]

Spanische Spielkarten "Naipes Finos", Dondorf, No.304, 1902 to about 1930. Designed by the catalan artist Apel les Mestres, Barcelona. Produced mainly for export to Italy, Spain and Spanish colonies in South America.

[GandalfPC]

Nice!

[Honeybee]

Are they pics of your actual cards A2Five? They look like they are fresh from the printers!

[acetofive]

Are they pics of your actual cards A2Five? They look like they are fresh from the printers!

From my scanner to your desktop. A testament to Dondorf craftsmanship. I lucked out with a nearly unused-mint deck.

[CrystalDrug]

Your vintage collection is wonderful! I like the Shakespearean deck in particular, maybe one day I'll get to hold one in my hands. I'm guessing that these vintage pieces must cost a fortune.

[acetofive]

Your vintage collection is wonderful! I like the Shakespearean deck in particular, maybe one day I'll get to hold one in my hands. I'm guessing that these vintage pieces must cost a fortune.

Thank you! I've been collecting slowly over a long period of time with a narrow focus (most of the time) to take the bite out of costs.

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W.D. & H.O. Wills (London) Cigarette Card Inserts: Birds of Brilliant Plumage. About 35mm x 62mm.
Top Row: 1916 Pirate Cigarettes, Offset printing. With Frame.
2nd Row: 1916 Pirate Cigarettes, Chromolithography. Without Frame.
3rd Row: 1924 Four Aces Cigarettes, Chromolithography.
4th Row: 1924 Four Aces Cigarettes, Chromolithography.

[GandalfPC]

Love the baccy sets - pretty hard to come by

[acetofive]

Love the baccy sets - pretty hard to come by

Me too, and yep - a complete set has been out of reach for years, so I get singles and I'm happy.

[acetofive]

Chromolithography and offset printing coexisted for a while from the late 1800s to the early 1900s. Dondorf was one of the last if not the last hold out still printing chromolithography until the early 1930s.

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Jeu des Alchimistes, 1967, designed by artist Elfriede Weidenhaus for Dr. Brum Antonioli, a Swiss pharmacist, published by Müller, Switzerland. Elfriede Weidenhaus (1931-2023), born in Berlin, was known for her watercolors, drawings, etchings, and lithographs. Her range included work in Greece, France, Italy, London, Paris, Rome and Amsterdam.

[GandalfPC]

Oh yeah, thats the stuff!

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Mid to late 1920s Carreras Fortune Telling Cigarette Cards, likely printed by Dondorf (see Joop Muller's article, link below). Two versions were made upon first printing - a thin set (this one) and a wide set (you can see on GandolfPC's thread, pg 12). Versions were also made with portraits on every card replacing the pip cards. I keep mine in a Carreras Black Cat Virginia Cigarette box from *about* the same time period (I'm still looking to date the boxes). The other box, for Black Cat Craven "A" Cigarettes, is home to my Wills Birds of Brilliant Plumage cards - also not the original box. The US Post Office Mail Box in the upper right corner is a restored 1930 Corbin DD Eagle door framed in a Kentucky Coffee Tree wood box (by KandEBanksEtc in Tulsa). Joop Muller. WOPC on Carreras.
.

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Dondorf No 239, Doppelköpfige Deutsche Spielkarte (Double Headed German Playing Cards), 35 of 36 cards. My deck has a tax stamp dating it to the mid 1920s. They were also issued with 48 cards so that players could play "Gaigel," a game from the Württemberg region of Germany. Ober and Unter figures are dressed in Biedermeier style clothing reflecting upper middle class tastes. Biedermeier themes could be found in fashion, literature, music, visual arts and interior design, from about 1815-1848. Barney Townshend in his WOPC article adds, "The advent of double-ended cards presented playing card designers with a new challenge. Sometimes the two ends were just mirror images of each other; the court figures in this set are thoughtfully designed with some clever solutions in achieving the double ended result."

[acetofive]

Playing card themes on postage stamps, plus one US Playing Card Revenue stamp.

1986, Deutsche Bundespost issued stamp celebrating the Centennial of the first German Skat Congress, held in 1886 in Altenburg, Germany. The congress was held in an attempt to corral the growing disparate sets of rules propagating across Germany at the time. The first official rules were published in 1888. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Skat

US Government issued Internal Revenue Stamp, 1862-71. To see a beautiful collection of private die stamps (the governement allowed manufacturers to produce their own "branded" revenue stamps), see http://www.endebrock.de/stamps/st-usa.html.

US Postage, King and Queen of Hearts, 2009.

Czechoslovakia, 1984, playing cards from (supposedly) the 16th-19th centuries (sources aren't very specific about the cards depicted).

Belgium, 1973.

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Johan Bull playing cards, reproduction by Alexander Lutkovskiy. Originally published in 1930 by Emil Moestue, in Oslo, Norway. Johan Bull also designed Dondorf's Saks Fifth Avenue deck, also about 1930 (page 1 of this thread). Born in Oslo, Bull moved to New York City in 1925 to work as an illustrator and artist.