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Promotion for the Laser Clay Shooting System by Nintendo, 1973.

https://www.wopc.co.uk/japan/laser-clay-playing-cards

Nintendo has produced some lovely decks. I just shared one in my thread.

Gaigel Württemberger Doppelbild (2 x 24 cards) by "Vereinigte Stralsunder Spielkartenfabriken A.G."
A beautiful chromolitography with very detailed design.

So far, I haven't found out much about them. It seems like they were first printed by Eduard Büttner in Berlin around 1905: http://a.trionfi.eu/WWPCM/decks02/d00596/d00596.htm
According to the sparse records online, VSS A.G. took over Büttner in 1908. The Wiki article about the Altenburger/Stralsunder factory claims that they also stopped
production of the Württemberg pattern in 1908:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASS_Altenburger (second last paragraph of "Stralsund's playing card factories")

This seems to be almost definitely inaccurate because of the back of these cards. It shows the coat of arms of Württemberg used from 1922 to 1933: https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:W ... rbe%29.svg

So it's most likely from somewhere between 1922 - 1929 (because of the estimated time range for the tax stamp, which is ~ 1923-1929).

The acorns and bells are beautiful

Seconded. Beautiful cards.

So glad to be introduced to new cards from this time period. Another one for my wish list.

"Deutsche Heimat-Karte" (German Homeland-Card) 35 mm x 22 mm

So far, no printer has been determined for these cards. Maybe Yramos printed them in their own factory.
The pattern was only printed for or by them in this mini variant and is a completely reworked variant of the Prussian pattern. There are two known colorways for the tuckbox and another variant with unique scenic number cards. The back design was only issued in red. I only have single scenic number cards in my collection and I'm missing the 10s and the 9 and 8 of bells. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any other source on the web to show the missing cards.
"Deutsche Heimat-Karte" is written on the ace of bells, also a completely unique term, most Prussian cards have just "Deutsche Karte" written there.
Yramos also issued a cigarette album with the name "Deutsche Heimat", so maybe some motifs of the scenic number cards are identical with pictures from the album.
The tuck mentions an award which was given to them in 1934, so the time of production is most likely somewhere between 1935 and 1941.
On WWPCM there are also a few scans of a reworked Berlin pattern: http://a.trionfi.eu/WWPCM/decks13/d11691/d11691.htm

The cards are extremely fragile compared to other mini cards from cigarette brands. They're much thinner and have a brittle laquer coating of some kind.

A few things about Yramos as well:
Yramos was founded in 1890 in Gollub in West Prussia (today named "Golub-Dobrzyń" in Poland) by the father of Julius Lewin, later the successor. They moved to Dresden in 1919. Through aryanization, the Reemtsma company (to this day one of the biggest cigarette manufacturers) bought Yramos in 1938 and produced under this name for three more years. In 1941 the name Yramos was deleted from the commercial register.

Spielkarten für alle Länder - Playing cards for all countries

Newspaper advertisement from the Altenburger Spielkartenfabrik A.G., ~ between 1914 and 1920

"Karikatur" by Siegfried Heilmeier, 1983

Limited to 99 copies, all numbered and hand- and stencilcolored as well.

S. Heilmeier designed cards in very limited runs (sometimes only 2–10 copies) with various motifs between ~ 1983 - 2017. Many of his designs are NSFW, but he also caricatured popular figures and politicians for example. He mostly produced Skat decks with 32 cards but almost always added two Jokers to his decks. I don't know the specific reason for this, but from what I've heard, this funky figure on the Joker card is a caricatured version of himself.

In "Karikatur" he picked random famous persons and popular symbols and caricatured them in his own way. (At least to me they seem random. It's possible his choices were more profound)

• Queens
  Clubs: Mona Lisa
  Spades: Statue of Liberty
  Hearts: Marilyn Monroe
  Diamonds: Queen of Diamonds

• Kings
  Clubs: Charlie Chaplin
  Spades: Richard Wagner
  Hearts: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
  Diamonds: Albert Einstein

• Jacks
  Clubs: Napoléon I
  Spades: David (Michelangelo)
  Hearts: Bertolt Brecht
  Diamonds: Wladimir Lenin

JoS, QoC. Love this. Had not seen this before.

Usually I'm all in when it comes to opening a deck, but I make a few exceptions, especially when it comes to decks from before the 1940s.

For example, this 1920s advertisement deck for "NORMAG", a margarine and cooking fat company from Berlin. From the box to the wrapping paper, very near to mint. Seems like it's been behind glass since then.

Produced by VSS in Stralsund. It's most likely a Berlin pattern.
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find any info on the NORMAG company though.

Now you need to find another for opening

"Unique 555" by Playwell in Bombay, India ~ 1975

TwoForHisHeels describes this deck as the standard deck from Playwell, not as famous internationally as the "Air India" deck in a similar style, which was apparently gifted to passengers back in the days: https://www.wopc.co.uk/india/air-india

The back most likely pictures a part of the Himalayan mountains with a typical stone house in front. It also came with other backs as well as a red box: http://a.trionfi.eu/WWPCM/decks04/d03790/d03790.htm

Besides cards, I also collect old miscellaneous stuff related to cards.

Here's a tray with four boxes for jetons. The surface is most likely bubinga-veneer with worn shellac.
The parts are covered with flat brass mounts and nails. In the center of the box lids there are four different men holding up their cards. These little busts are made out of thin copper.

Besides a few scratches, minor chips and the worn shellac, it's in good, used condition for its age, which I'd estimate at around 1870-80.



(I don't know why the pics are facing the wrong direction in the preview but when you click on them the direction is right again)

Magnificent
You would need some very fancy chips to put in them if you were ever going to use them

Will look out for some. Most of these boxes originally contained just plain or dyed bone chips without any fancy carving or anything else.

Something like this: https://images.app.goo.gl/SeUXV

Tempting to put authentic in there - but no. With all the beautiful chips made nowadays, I am sure there must be some that compliment these antique boxes

Something like this could work

https://www.ebay.com/itm/135923780864?_ ... R_7ip7_oZQ

One of very few modern additions to my collection: Ukiyo-e pictures from Mt. Fuji & the Edo period by Hokusai, Hiroshige and others.

I always loved the Ukiyo-e style and Japanese art in general, so when I saw this on eBay I just had to have it. The deck comes with awesome motifs such as "The Great Wave off Kanagawa" and many others. I don't have further info to determine the production time of this deck, but my best guess is somewhere in the 2010s.

A rare example from the last few years of Dondorfs' existence:

Dondorfs Saxonian Pattern (Chemnitz Type) "Sachsengold" Nr. 250, the rare Doppelkopf variant with 2x24 cards.

Around 1928 Dondorf (and later their successor Flemming & Wiskott) tried to rearange their assortment with less luxury cards and more ordinary decks because Dondorfs high quality produced cards could not hold up price wise with all the cheap produced decks from their competitors. This Saxonian pattern first appeared around 1924, printed by Flemming & Wiskott. Accordingly, it can be assumed that Flemming-Wiskott brought this pattern with them when they took over Dondorf and moved their manufacturing site from Glogau to Frankfurt in 1932. The aspect of the downfall of Dondorf and Flemming in 1933 narrows the production date down to 1932-1933. Even though the name Dondorf was still used by the next successor, VASS. I couldn't find any evidence of this exact pattern printed by VASS, so I think the dating should be accurate.

I love it when atz and ace share their knowledge (my new favorite dynamic duo )

Büttner Salonbild. Sadly not from E. Büttner, Berlin directly, but a later variant by Stralsunder Spielkartenfabriken after they took over Büttners factory.

The back is a special design for the 300-year anniversary celebration on 24th of July 1928 of the defense against Wallenstein in Stralsund. The frame reads "Von Wallenstein befreit - Allezeit zur Wehr bereit", which roughly translates to "freed from Wallenstein - always ready to defend ourselves". The text in the bottom left corner translates to "The city must come down, even if it were tied to the sky with chains". As far as I understand, the legend has it that this was Wallensteins last sentence before a bullet hit his wine glass. This convinced him to end the siege of Stralsund. The text in the bottom right corner is written in local dialect and roughly translates to: "Surrender? We won't do that. Money? We don't have that. Villains, rebels? That's not us". The Wallenstein-Days are still celebrated annually today. Overall, a wonderful deck with a lot of history.

Fantastic! When would the original variant have been produced by the Büttners factory?

Honeybee wrote: ↑Sat Jul 05, 2025 7:24 pm When would the original variant have been produced by the Büttners factory?

I think the pattern was first printed around 1900 and Stralsund already took over in 1907.

Neue Deutsche Spielkarte (New German Playing card), 1883 by Jacob Hirsch and Martin Lämmel, conceived by Dr. Timon Schroeter in Jena, Germany
Printed by J.G. Fritzsche in Leipzig

The suits are partially customized, leaves are specifically ivy, hearts become radish and bells become sunflowers.
Every suit stands for one of humans most important characteristics:

• Acorn = force/strength

• Ivy = loyalty

• Radish = diligence

• Sunflowers = wisdom

Besides the original design being published in a book accompanied by explanations in verses, several variants were published, such as a deck with Damen instead of Obers, without index or without frames. The deck originally had 52 designed cards but was also issued with 36 and 32 cards.

Overall, this is very high up on the list of my all-time favorites. Every single card is a masterpiece.

Source for the info as well as a few more insights on the book, the Damen version and an original wrapper:
https://www.endebrock.de/coll/pages/d1367.html
https://www.wopc.co.uk/germany/neue-deutsche-spielkarte
http://a.trionfi.eu/WWPCM/decks03/d01720/d01720.htm

Wow. Gorgeous cards. Thanks for the links.

"Colofon" was designed for the 5th anniversary of the Contactblad "De Speelkaart" by Gerrit van Berkum.
It's a limited edition of 1000 decks and comes with a neat banderole.
I couldn't find any recent articles about De Speelkaart, so I think this magazine is discontinued now. The same seems to go for the printer "De Dageraad".

Here come the Jokers and extra cards

Anti-War playing cards by Siegfried Heilmeier, Munich from 1983

Limited edition of 100 decks, all hand- and stencilcolored. I love the way he arranges the pip cards.