Clear the DecksThe Newsletter for 52 PLUS JOKER

The American Playing Card Collectors Club

Volume XXX Number 2 June 2016

Club Information .....................................................1Queen.....................................................................2President ..................................................................3Publicity....................................................................3Decoding Charta Lusoria ........................................4Cartoons...................................................................9The Farrell Lines ....................................................11Wildcards ...............................................................13Sample Cards ........................................................14Queen Victoria Jubilee ..........................................15Fireside Games......................................................17Discarded Cards ....................................................19Old Deck...............................................................21Multi Playing Cards...............................................21Fact Sheet ............................................................23 Classified................................................................24Convention Ad ......................................................26

52 Plus Joker was formed to facilitate:

• The collection and trading of antique and collectible playing cards and related items,

• The advancement of knowledge about the history, manufacture and artistic aspect of playing cards,

• The promotion of fellowship among mem-bers with similar interests

The Club seeks new members and welcomes them whether they are experts or novices to playing card collecting. As one of the objectives of the Club is to introduce collectors to others with similar interests, we publish, annually, a comprehensive roster of members categorizing their interests. MEMBERSHIP DUES $25/45/60 for 1/2/3 years U.S. and Canada $35/65/90 for 1/2/3 years International (airmail) Make checks payable to 52 Plus Joker and send to:

Steve Bowling 12205 Menalto Drive

Los Alto CA. 94022-4234 USA Or use Paypal (your dues + $3) to Steve Bowling

Email: payments@52plusjoker.org

Our bulletin, Clear the Decks, is published quarterly in March, June, September and December. Materi-als for publication are most welcome and should be sent at least one month in advance to the editor:

Judy Dawson (email - tigers101@sympatico.ca) 736 O’Connor Drive

Toronto, Ontario Canada M4C 3A9

Rates for advertisements: Payable to Steve above 1/4 page $32.00 1/2 page $60.00 Full page $120.00 There is a 20% discount for four or more ads AUCTION AND CONENTION For those of you who will be in Chicago for the 2016 Convention (and we are hoping for a great turnout!) don’t forget that we will have a live auc-tion and one or two silent auctions so bring some nice decks to sell, trade and put into an auction. Without the mail auctions, this is now one of the best ways to pass on your traders.

CLUB OFFICERS Lee Asher - President Judy Dawson - VP CTD Editor Clarence Peterson - Secretary Steve Bowling - Treasurer/Conventions Lee Asher - Executive VP Publicity/Membership Don Boyer - VP Digital Media Bill Kalush - VP Playing Card Projects Harry Wastrack - Past President Tom Dawson (1937-2016) - Past President ADVISORS John and Dan McKinnon - Auctions Alex Clays - Contributing Editor Rod Starling - Contributing Editor Harry Wastrack – Contributing Editor WEBSITE www.52plusjoker.org/dnn TABLE OF CONTENTS

FRONT COVER Playing Card Decks from this Issue 1. Queen Victoria – 1837-1901 2. Ober of Wine Glasses - Charta Lusoria 3. Mother’s Love - Congress - c1918 4. Bicycle Rider Back - c1970 5. Crown Card - In Dixie-Land. 6. American Whist League Sample - c1912

The back cover features a wonderful leaflet adver-tising the Game of Nationalities, one of the many games published by the Fireside Game Co. c1900. They are interesting, easy and reasonable to buy and have a finite number to search for. They can often be found on eBay.

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The Queen in Court

I know you are aware that Tom, my husband for almost 57 years, left us on the second day of spring, my favorite time of year. Although it is unu-sual for a spouse to give the eulogy at the funeral, I decided to do it as I wanted to express what this lovely man meant to me. I am now also sharing it with you, my friends.

I met Tom on March 9, 1957. I can still see what he was wearing that day; baggy Levis, a yellow vi-yella shirt and red sweater with white around the V-neck and cuffs, made by his mum. He wore an old grey duffle coat and desert boots and he was so beautiful … he just took my breath away.

Why did he pick a scrawny, awkward freckle-faced ornery redhead to spend the rest of his life with? I have never figured it out. All I know is that from that day forward he loved me unconditionally.

He gave me all I ever wanted with little thought as to whether it was what he would or would not want. He gave me confidence and security, he never questioned the lifestyle I chose, he allowed me to be who and what I am without criticism. We always had dogs which I wanted and who he, in his contra-ry way, pretended NOT to love…how ridiculous!

But best of all he gifted me with our wonderful fami-ly whom he loved and was so proud of (most of the time!) Jennifer, Ted, Melissa, Matthew, Kate and Emily, who with their partners have given us 15 fan-tastic grandchildren and one adorable little great granddaughter, and he was a supportive father and grandfather to every one of them. He was my Tom, my rock and he has left me with my own rock, the courage and strength I will need to be without him.

He was loyal and dedicated to any work or project he undertook...... just as long as it didn't entail manual labor! He golfed, especially in his beloved Ireland with his buddies, travelled to many places, and played a mean game of bridge. Collecting an-tiques was a very important part of our life together.

We became authorities on antique playing cards and travelled to many places in search of those elusive treasures. We also compiled a large ency-clopedia on the subject and he devoted many hours to perfecting it. We were part of a great club for like collectors and made so many wonderful friends there who will miss his dedication to the club and this collectible. He set up a family foundation to support a number of good and worthy charities. He sat on 12 boards in retirement, and continually added to his knowledge and experience while doing so. He cultivated and embraced a wide circle of good friends from every walk of life many of whom have reached out to me with beautiful memories.

His last special gift to me: One day our daughter Melissa called me to tell me the cottage across from her was for sale and she was excited because she thought one of her friends might buy it. Instantly I decided I might like it. Tom was stunned at the very idea but he drove me up to see it. On the way he carefully spelt out, in his log-ical fashion, the five reasons why this would be an unwise investment, and of course he was right.

We spent about an hour viewing everything and on the way home he reiterated the five reasons why we should NOT buy this cottage, and I agreed. But... of course, this was Tom, and he bought me my perfect little cottage where we have spent many happy hours these last few years. We were at peace together in this beautiful quiet spot.

Tom was a good and content husband and I will love and miss him until the day I die. However, I know he will always be with me ...... just not visible.

Tom silently slipped away on March 22, the day of my birthday, but he will remain forever in the hearts of all those who love him…… His was definitely a life well lived!

Love to you all

Judy

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PRESIDENT'S LETTER I wasn't planning on writing my first President's letter until October, but due to unforeseen circumstances, this will be my first entry as your fearless leader. I'd like to start by officially stating that Tom Dawson's tremendous shoes are impossible to fill. He was THE MOST powerful force in our playing card kingdom, and there might never be another entity similar to him or Judy. We were truly blessed to have Tom for as long as we did. Therefore, I pledge to do my best to honor his vision, our community, and the culture of our club.

For my first President's letter, Judy asked if I'd write a short bio about my life so our members could learn more about me. Below are some quick highlights of my life that might interest you and offer you a glimpse into why I love playing cards. First and foremost, I'm a second-generation sleight-of hand artist. My father taught me magic at the ripe age of seven. Around the age of fifteen, I started performing restaurant magic for money in the evenings. Eventually, I moved from Florida to Las Vegas, Nevada to study Casino Management at University (UNLV). It was here I found my love for vintage casino playing cards like the famous Jerry's Nugget and Golden Nugget playing cards.

Directly after finishing school in 1999, I threw all my possessions into a Las Vegas storage locker, and chased my heart to Paris, France. During this sublime period of my life, I also traveled around Europe performing and teaching my brand of sleight of hand to other magicians. At the same time, I was gaining important knowledge about European playing card manufacturers that would help later on in the future.

Once I conquered Europe, I began performing and lecturing around the rest of the world in cities such London, Singapore, Buenos Aires, Copenhagen, Kuala Lumpur, Perth, Shanghai, Taipei, Santo Domingo, Beijing, Tokyo, Glasgow, Tel-Aviv, Hong Kong - and the list goes on and on.

Eventually I moved back to the Americas. Then all of a sudden in 2004, as if by magic, the playing card world changed. Online retailer Ellusionist printed a deck with the United States Playing Card Co. called 'Black Tigers'. Almost overnight, thousands of young playing card enthusiasts from around the world appeared, eager to collect, and were inspired by this new wave of custom playing card manufacturing. A handful of years later, in 2009, I decided to put that European knowledge to use and print my own line of playing cards with the

acclaimed Spanish company Fournier. I had loved their brand for years, and felt that they made high quality playing cards. The same year I met Tom and Judy along with the other 52 Plus Joker members. I even attended my first convention. And this was when my playing card knowledge base vastly expanded. Tom and Judy were also the catalyst for my learning to appreciate other areas of playing card collecting, learning more about the history of the manufacturers, as well as an appreciation for antique decks and ephemera.

This brings me to the past six years when I've served as your head of Publicity, helping to spread the word about the club. During this time, I realise that it's the leadership's job to influence the membership to become smarter collectors, historians and researchers and to provide the necessary tools and space for that growth. This is why I have passionately pushed for projects - digitizing all CTDs in Ask Alexander, acquiring the world's largest Playing Card forum, forming strong bonds with playing card manufacturers and creating Card Culture.

Without a doubt, the future of our precious playing card world is illuminated with great opportunity, and it’s my pleasure to lead us into this bright light.

PUBLICITY AND MEMBERSHIP While it's a pleasure to juggle everything, it would be wonderful if a few people stepped in to help with some of these roles. It's not necessary to explain how much it would be truly appreciated! Please send an email to Lee@LeeAsher.com, if you're interested. It's not too difficult, and I can explain what each position entails once you write. I look forward to hearing from you AND working with you.

On a different note, if you're near Toronto, on June 12th, 2016, 52 Plus Joker is sponsoring a local playing card meet-up at the Browser's Den of Magic. We tried something similar a few years ago, and it was successful. We're back with a few improvements, - the plan is to continue to offer a space where playing cards are discussed, traded, sold, and loved! Additionally, there will be several informative sessions discussing the care and grading of cards, and collectors can have their decks appraised and questions answered about antique, vintage, and modern playing cards. If this sounds like your kind of fun and a perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon, then you're welcome to join us. Email me if you need any further details.

Lee Asher

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DECODING JOST AMMAN’S CHARTA LUSORIA DECK OF 1588

PART VI – The Courts, Continued: Two Last Pairs of Obers/Unters, and Four Lovely Ladies (Adapted from a talk given at our annual convention in Charleston, SC on October 16, 2014)

By Tom Gallegos - The Absentminded Antiquary

Nowadays, there is a large community of tarot readers and fortune telling enthusiasts, some of whom are attempting to use the Charta Lusoria deck to perform readings. And why not? It is such an early, attractive and unusual deck that the temp-tation is almost irresistible. It is not difficult to find evidence of these attempts online. But the facsimi-le decks they are using never seem to include the original old verses, translated or otherwise.

Frankly, a lot of these folks are just making stuff up as they go along. (The only notable exception I could find is https://chartalusoria.wordpress.com, but this person only managed to translate the Latin for half the cards, and has not posted anything new since 2013. Although I freely acknowledge I did get a bit of a head start from these online translations, I went a different way in most of mine, and got a bit more sense out of the verses, in my opinion.)

I am not a card reader or fortune teller myself, but in my humble opinion, any use of Charta Lusoria for fortune telling or divination should be grounded in the actual, original meanings of the cards, as Am-man and Schröter created them. Let's keep this in mind as we continue our journey through the Latin translations of the court cards. As usual, I will show a pair (or quartet) of cards, then talk about each one, from left to right, top to bottom.

OBER OF BEAKERS: He might be a Landsknecht, but his only weapons are an artist's palette and brushes. The long rod in his hand with the small padded ball at the top is an old painter's tool, used for steadying the hand, gauging lines of perspec-tive, and suchlike. It's hard to find references to these, but I've seen the old painters hold the rod perpendicularly to the easel, brace the ball against an empty (or dry) area of the canvas, then gently lay their brush arm on top of the rod, using it like an armrest, so they can more accurately dab away at the smallest details.

As I am writing this, the thought suddenly occurs to me: Could this Ober possibly be a self-portrait of Jost Amman himself? This hits me like a lightning bolt! It would certainly explain why there is sudden-ly an artist among the mercenaries. Amman would have considered himself much more than just a skilled craftsman. He would have thought of him-self as a painter, a designer, and most of all, a fine artist (künstmaler). Let's have another look at the few surviving images of Amman that we have, right next to an enlargement of the face on the card:

JOST AMMAN and the OBER OF BEAKERS: Separated at Birth?

An exciting possibility. (Did he perhaps, out of vanity, give himself a slightly smaller nose there?) But let's get on with his verse, shall we? Whoever he is, he is certainly a fine exemplar of his suit sign of beakers. Most artists are drinking men, after all:

No place in Turkey is embellished with portraits No art of Protogenes*, nor you Zeuxis*, farewell. Why, you ask? Because the Painters and Poets Lifeblood, the gift of Emperor Bacchus, is forbidden.

(* Famous Greek painters, whose works are lost.) 4

Yep, that's Jost Amman all right. Comparing booze to the artist's very lifeblood?! Yes indeed, that's him, officer. A positive ID, if ever there was one.

Well, it's a viable theory, at least. This card, like the King and Ten of the same suit, is an anti-Muslim rant. (Oddly, the Unter of Beakers has nothing to do with this theme; or rather, he neglects it, as we shall see next.) This Ober goes even fur-ther than those other two cards. It asserts nothing less than the superiority of our (German) civilization over that of the Turks, literally accusing them of having no art of any kind. And the reason they have no art is because they don't allow alcohol. What better place for our hero, an illustrious and proud Citizen of Nuremberg, to appear, than on this card? (Since my original talk I've discovered that, unlike today, when the word is often taken for granted, in 16th-century Germany, being a "citizen" was a very big deal. A citizen was almost like a city official, in a way. Money was paid for the honor, and an appointment or commission was received from the city council. You also had to be engaged in some sort of prosperous or culturally significant trade or endeavor, such as, in Amman's case, be-ing a printer, engraver, and well-known artist. Our modern term "pillar of the community" would equate much more closely to what was meant in the 16th century by the term "citizen," which has been con-siderably cheapened in our own time.)

If this theory holds up, and Amman really is the Ober of Beakers, where in the deck might we search for a portrait (if there is one) of Heinrich Schröter, our mysterious poet laureate? The Ober of Wineglasses? The Unter of Beakers? These are certainly possibilities. But he would probably be a literary type, and of a similar rank to Amman. Could he be the oh-so-learned-and-wise Ober of Books, perhaps? (See Part V.)

Then one last lightning bolt strikes: Amman holding a painter's palette? Emphasizing his role as a fine artist, and not a mere engraver? Time to do a dou-ble-take: Could the beautifully painted illuminations and rich colors in my copy of the deck, unknown in any other copy, possibly be by the hand of the mas-ter himself?! GASP! (I know of no way to prove this, of course. It is probably nothing more than an entertaining conjecture. But who knows what future researchers may be able to uncover?)

UNTER OF BEAKERS: That last card is going to be a tough act to follow. Here, we are back to an-other portrait of a simple soldier, but one who is enigmatically facing away from the viewer. (The

better to show off his magnificent pludderhoser and parti-colored stockings? Or is he turning inward, in a contemplative pose? Perhaps he is turning his back on polite civilization itself, in favor of the arts of war.) And yet he appears to be on guard, fully alert. He is heavily armed with a sword (barely vis-ible in his left hand), a dagger to his rear belt, and a halberd in his right hand. Perhaps it's appropriate that his rank is Unter, because when it comes to booze at least, he is the very picture of neglect. His beaker lies forgotten on the ground. (The other three courts all look like they are proposing a toast.) He is not interested in harping on the anti-Turkish theme, nor liqueurs nor drinking. His verse men-tions none of these things. A stiff, manly draft of war, against anyone, is his preferred drink:

What the great demand of these: my first and only pleasure,

How excellent the power to wage war to win the applause of real men.

Only he who subdues the flames in his own breast,

Can merit the glorious name of soldier.

"What the great demand of these" is probably a reference to the feudal obligations that lesser lords owe to greater ones. Then he specifically goes on to say that war is his "first and only pleasure." Hot-heads need not apply. Only men who can exercise self-control and not be loose cannons, can call themselves true soldiers. Along with the Ober of Inkpads, this is a pure war-card, a card of stalwart military virtue and manly bearing, where the neces-sary courage is taken for granted.

OBER OF WINEGLASSES: Here we are in anoth-er drinking suit, where again, most of the courts (except the Unter) look like they are proposing a

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toast. In this case, the Ober may be toasting the upcoming campaign:

Another savage war, where Mars leads, arms follow;

I attend to the gentle camp of Bacchus; Though I lack not sumptuous dishes for the table, A stiff, undiluted drink in the mouth can

parch the innocence.

In the first line, he appears to be almost shrugging his shoulders at the prospect of war. It's what men like him do, after all. He's not upset by the pro-spect, but neither is he overjoyed, like the Ober of Inkpads or the Unter of Beakers would be. He is war-weary, and drinks to escape his problems. The mention of sumptuous dishes completes the picture of a gourmand who is also a wine aficionado (which really means he has a bit of a drinking problem). Battle is his day job. At night, he loves to unwind with fine dining and a good bottle of wine. That last phrase, "parch the innocence," is highly evocative of both red-wine-induced cottonmouth due to the tannins wine contains, and the loss of innocence that comes with long experience of both war and drinking. He is jaded, in other words. True to his suit sign, he is much more than a social drinker. Let's call him a high-functioning alcoholic.

UNTER OF WINEGLASSES: A heavily-armed yet hapless fellow, the Unter of Wineglasses is throw-ing up his arms as if he's just missed his bus. He is not having a good day. To hear his verse tell it, he's not having a good life. He cries out to his god:

As your camp follower for many long years now Bacchus,

What gifts, pray tell, are finally ready for your servant? Poverty, countless diseases, and death everlasting, These rewards our vigorous soldier has.

He is a hopeless drunk, in other words. We are talking serious cirrhosis of the liver here, and most likely delirium tremens (the notorious "DTs" or "the shakes") to boot. He's been a drinking man all his life, and is now facing poverty, disease and death as a result. A story as sad as it is old. He is, to put it delicately, not quite as high-functioning an alco-holic as his Ober. He has reached rock bottom, in fact. He is neglectful of his suit sign in the sense that he drank rivers of wine long ago, neglecting his health. His wineglass is not merely forgotten on the ground. It now sits between his legs, exactly where you would place a piss-pot. This cannot be a coin-cidence. It is a shameful insult to the glass that once brought him so much pleasure. He has drunk all the wine he could find, and is now paying the

consequences and suffering many regrets, just as the wine that went in one end, will eventually come out the other. Alcoholism vitiates the strong. (The word "vigorous" is probably meant sarcastically, as "once-vigorous.") This card might be thought of as denoting serious substance abuse of any kind.

LUCK BE A LADY TONIGHT

Even though they are not Landsknechts, let's move on to the "Great Ladies" or "Perfect Tens" of the deck, as I like to call them. They are not queens, mind you, but they are such appealing personalities that I think we can consider them honorary court cards for the purposes of this article. They are cer-tainly face cards, and they bring a refreshing femi-nine touch to the otherwise rough-and-ready, male-dominated world of Charta Lusoria.

When we see all four ladies grouped together, as below, it is very tempting to see them as the Four Cardinal Virtues, so common in Renaissance art. These were allegorical female figures of the most important virtues handed down from classical an-tiquity - Prudence (Wisdom), Justice, Temperance and Courage (Strength). However, when we trans-late their verses, it is very difficult to reconcile them with the Four Cardinal Virtues, or decide which lady should go with which virtue.

While it is not impossible to shoehorn them togeth-er (the Ten of Books would make a very creditable Prudence, for example), these women seem to rep-resent a different set of values - a moral code which may have been much more appropriate to the war-rior/scholar culture of 16th century Nuremberg. As we shall see, we would do much better to call these lovelies Fame, Action, Conviviality and Acceptance.

(The old classical Four Cardinal Virtues are of in-terest to card collectors, because those four alle-gorical ladies all went on to become tarot cards, later in their careers. You will find them here and there in the major arcana, in various positions in various decks. But in the most traditional decks, say, an old Tarot of Marseilles, we will find Courage as card XI-Force; Justice as card VIII-Justice; Temperance as card XIIII-Temperance; and Pru-dence or Wisdom, also known by her Greek name, Sophia, hiding as the dancing naked female at the center of card XXI-The World.)

Of course, there is every chance that these Tens were not merely allegorical figures, but also real living, breathing women, either historical (from ear-lier periods) or contemporary (women who were

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alive when the deck was published in 1588). Unfor-tunately, I have no idea who any of these women might have been in real life. In theory, it may be possible for someone to identify them someday, but it is a task well beyond my research abilities at this time. However, they do have some fascinating things to say, no less than the men do. Let's listen in, shall we?

TEN OF INKPADS: Like all these ladies, she holds her suit sign up in the air. Even though the Tens rank lower than the Unters, you get the impression that none of these four women would ever "neglect" their suit signs, in the way those slovenly Unters are known to do. Rather, they are proud advocates and promoters of their suits, in this case, the print-ing press.

Fame for the acts of leaders, the presses spread round the world,

We make it a habit by dexterous commerce. Well done! These labors transmit the names in Tawny gold, gems, and with my help, roses. (lifetime,

"News travels fast," in other words, "and the names of the newsmakers. The presses never stop. Let's pat ourselves on the back! All our hard work builds the reputations of these leaders as if we were be-decking them with gold, gems, and thanks to me, they come out smelling like roses." This verse makes a 16th-century print shop sound like the bustling city room of a major American newspaper! However, they have not yet figured out that they're supposed to be tearing down the reputations of their leaders, not building them up. Apparently the concept of muckraking journalism had not yet been invented. Yet, look at the cattails and bulrushes behind her, which we have theorized were burned in those days, to obtain the ash to manufacture ink. She is on the edge of a marsh. And unlike any other lady in the deck, she just happens to be hold-ing her skirt aloft. Could it be that she is somehow dimly aware that she is standing in mud?

(The parenthesized word "lifetime" at the end of the verse appears to be a mistake, or printer's error, ironically enough. As if the poet was in the midst of attempting to work in another thought, but the whole thing ended up going to press in draft form. There is no closed parenthesis at the end.)

This card seems to be about not merely the printing arts, but their role in the building of the aristocracy's good reputation, fame, or dare I say it, celebrity.

TEN OF BOOKS: Unlike the other three, Madam Books can only hold her suit sign about waist-high, as if to hint at the "weight" of all that book learning. This remarkable card exhorts us to seize the day:

Still snoring? Shake off the chill, my boy, see how the Dawn has pushed back

The Shadows; and flees from too many fruitless days? Arise, to action: Many were taken by the famine,

who now dwell above the heavens. Sing glory, praise and honor eternal.

In other words, "Wake up, get yourself moving, there's work to be done if we don't want to die in the next famine, like those other poor bastards from last time, who all died and went to heaven. Sing the praises of work." (The actual word for "work" appears nowhere in the verse, but seems obvious from the context.) The reference to famine brings up the whole topic of agriculture, so this can literally be taken as, "Make hay while the sun shines," or, as Ben Franklin once said, "Never leave till tomor-row that which you can do today," and many other similar sayings. Our lady also wears a pomander on a long belt chain, a preventative to keep the plague, or at least bad smells, at bay. This is pos-

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sibly significant if we can infer that work is the po-mander that keeps starvation at bay. Since her suit sign is books, it would seem we are acknowledging that book learning is the royal road to wisdom, which somehow has a role to play in staving off the next famine. Perhaps this is a metaphor: By tilling the fields of knowledge, the body politic is made stronger, and thus better able to sustain itself. Re-gardless of the nuances, I think we can all agree there is only one name we can give the Ten of Books - the "carpe diem" card.

TEN OF BEAKERS: Like two of her courtly com-panions in this suit, the King and Ober, this woman is angry, and she literally looks angry, about (what else?) those damn Turks and their prohibition on alcohol. It is astonishing to note that precisely the sort of culture clash this verse describes is being played out in Germany today, and not with far-away Turks, but up-close and personal, as hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees are uncomfortably attempting to resettle in that country.

The mysteries of wine are prohibited to the Turks, As penalty one's feet are beaten with clubs: Remove that punishment, and let drinking be

manly excellence, For banquet guests, the law should be, he drinks,

or departs.

"No wine for the Turks," in other words, "they will beat you down. But let's flip that around - real men DO drink. Proper etiquette at feasts dictates, either drink, or get the hell out." The word "mysteries" in the first line of the verse implies several things in this context. Mystery was not just a word for un-seen or hidden things, not just things that defy ra-tional explanation. It was also a word used to refer to any skilled craft or trade. The "mystery" of den-tistry, for example, refers to the idea that your den-tist has special skills and knowledge that you lack, since he's been to dental school and has thus been "initiated" into the mysteries of dentistry in a way that you have not. "Mystery" encompasses a wealth of nuanced ideas. So, it's not just wine as a mere beverage that is being denied to the Turks, it's wine as a supernatural, quasi-religious phe-nomenon. Nothing less than wine as a culture, or way of life, is at stake here. Beating the soles of the feet with sticks (between 40 to 100 strokes) is a known historical punishment for alcoholism and other offenses in Islam. Still used today, in fact. But for Europeans, how can you hold a proper ban-quet without popping a few corks? Obviously the Turks have no regard for the good things in life. Her defiant expression aside, we might think of this as the conviviality, or "bottoms up" card.

TEN OF WINEGLASSES: A kindly and welcoming face, her glove doffed in one hand so she can hold her suit sign aloft in the other, this lady is the per-fect hostess, who can put her guests at ease, even if they are awkward or brash teenagers.

No brave deeds are needed, youth, coming hither so haughty

You who desire to enlarge upon the honours of your ancestors:

Among us, anyone strong in himself, with courtly bearing,

This earliest praise already holds nobility.

In other words, "Take it easy, proud, ambitious youth. There's no need to impress us. Around here, self-confidence and suavity go a long way." She is a welcoming, reassuring, motherly influence. She wants the best for all kids, her own and every-one else's too. She is your teacher, your mentor, your high school guidance counselor. She is talk-ing about how to fit in in life. In courtly life, or life at court - where it might seem like the pressure is on. But if you take her advice you will relax, and of course you'll do just fine. This is a coming-of-age card, but instead of an ordeal or a heroic journey, this card prescribes self-acceptance. After all, we love and accept you just fine the way you are. Be who you are. This is a card for "finding yourself".

FAREWELL TO THE COURTS

It should be obvious by now that the translated Lat-in verses add layers and layers and layers of mean-ing to the images on the cards. Now we have at least some idea of what these people were talking about, over four centuries ago. And we haven't even touched the German verses yet! (They seem like they are probably more vernacular versions of the same sentiments. But for all we know they may add other nuances, inferences or viewpoints.) We will also translate several of the spot cards in a fu-ture article. The spot cards, like the courts, feature many, many Landsknechts. But I doubt we will have room in these pages to go through the entire deck this way. These articles are dragging on long enough as it is!

And we are not finished yet. Not by a long shot. Now that we have begun to listen to these "voices of the dead," we have of course raised an unavoid-able issue. Does all this mean what we think it means? And, spoiler alert, I hope I haven't com-pletely given away my eventual answer.

NEXT TIME: The Burning Question: Is This Cart-omancy?

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PLAYING CARD CARTOONS PART 6 By Alex Clays

Abe Lincoln's Last Card or Rouge-et-Noir

Abraham Lincoln

On October 18th 1862 Punch, or the London Chari-vari, published a cartoon about the U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. The cartoon portraits Abe Lin-coln in the middle of the Civil War, performing a fierce card game battle against a Confederate leader. A wooden board upon a gun powder barrel serves as card table, and at his feet some cannon balls in the sand to symbolize the explosive situa-tion in the middle of the war.

Determined to win the battle Abe pulls out his high-est trump: an Ace of Spades in the form of a black man's face.

"Rouge-et noir" (red and black) in the title might be referring to an old French card game named "La Crapette", a type of Patience game for two players. But here it might also stand for the suffering of the black slaves.

Indeed, this cartoon was published shortly after Lincoln had issued his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation on September 22nd, 1862. The proc-lamation announced that all slaves in territory that was still in rebellion as of January 1, 1863, would be free. Since it freed slaves only in Rebel areas that were beyond Union occupation, the Emancipa-tion Proclamation really freed no one. But the measure was still one of the most important acts in American history, as it meant slavery would end when those areas were recaptured. In addition, the proclamation effectively sabotaged Confederate attempts to secure recognition by foreign govern-ments, especially Great Britain. When reunification was the goal of the North, foreigners could view the Confederates as freedom fighters being held against their will by the Union.

But after the Emancipation Proclamation, the Southern cause was now viewed as the defense of slavery. The proclamation was a shrewd maneuver by Lincoln to brand the Confederate States as a slave nation and render foreign aid impossible.

La Carte Forcée With this cartoon published on Sunday, April 26th, 1874 we return to France.

It was published on the front page of "Le Griot”, a satirical newspaper that first appeared in 1871 and lasted till 1903. It was a Republican journal, anti- clerical, opposed the Paris communards and on many occasions it had troubles with censure. One of their main caricaturists was Alfred Le Petit. Also author of this cartoon.

To a better understanding of this cartoon we have to go back in history to 1871 and the post Franco - German war. France surrendered to the Prussians

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in January of that same year. They formed a new interim government based in Versailles. But radi-cals in Paris rejected this government and formed the "Paris Commune", a radical socialist and revo-lutionary government that ruled Paris from March till May 1871 when Marchal Patrice MacMahon led the troops of the Versailles government against the Commune. In the bitter fighting of what was latter called La Semaine Sanglante ("The Bloody Week"), the government forces under MacMahon crushed the Commune with thousands of communards be-ing executed.

In 1873 MacMahon was elected President of the French Republic, with the support of the monar-chists and conservatives in the National Assembly. His term of office was fixed on seven years. He declared in a speech delivered on 4 February 1874 that he would know how to make the legally-established order of things respected for seven years.

So this cartoon shows a "poor socialist citoyen" who is presented a hand of cards in order to pull a card. However he is forced to accept the King of Hearts, referring to President MacMahon.

La Carte Forcée

Primum Vivere, Deinde Philosophari (Freely translated: life first, discuss after) This cartoon by the hand of Howard Somerville comes out of a “Punch Magazine" issued January 25th 1905. Howard Sommerville was born in1873 at Dundee Scotland and died in 1952.

Howard Sommerville

Here are shown four women, smoking and card playing and discussing the latest gossip: "Is Florries engagement really off, then?"

"Oh yes. Jack wanted her to give up gambling and smoking, and goodness knows what else."

(Chorus) "How absurd!!"

Clearly this cartoon is to be situated in the upcom-ing era of the "Suffragettes." British suffragettes were mostly women from upper- and middle - class backgrounds, frustrated by their social and economic situation.

Probably one of the best known suffragettes of that time period was Emmeline Pankhurst who in 1903 had founded the “Women's Social and Political Un-ion'. And as they say, the rest is history....

(To be continued) Editor’s Note; Thank you Alex, I am grateful for your continuing to send me interesting and topical articles. What a collection of playing card related ephemera you have!

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THE FARRELL LINES By Harry Wastrack

I have now reached the age where my wife tends to ask me, “If something happens to you, what should we do with your playing card collection?” Each time she has asked I have responded somewhere along the lines of “Whatever you do, don’t just throw it out. Some of those decks are valuable.” This invariably leads me to attempt to “organize” my collection. Each time, while I sincerely do in-tend to winnow my cards down to those worth keeping and those I could part with, I pretty much wind up back to where I began. I have managed to segregate and securely store those decks that I know would bring bids if ever put up for auction. However, the rest of the collection, in fact the vast majority of it, simply remains in boxes on shelves, loosely categorized.

Whenever I go through this ritual, at some point I divide my decks into one of three piles – the save because it is valuable pile, the save because I like it pile, and the sell, give away, or trash it pile. It is the latter two that give me the most problem. Among the decks that I save for no particular reason other than because I like them are my Farrell Lines ad-vertising/souvenir decks.

Farrell Lines originated with James A. Farrell, Sr., when, in 1910 as president of U.S. Steel, he estab-lished the Isthmian Steamship Company to mitigate the cost of shipping the company’s freight. Subse-quently he and his sons built or acquired a number of passenger and freight shipping companies that would serve the Middle East, the Far East, Africa, South America, and Australia. In 1948, the com-bined companies were collectively known as Farrell Lines Incorporated. Though the company discon-tinued passenger service in 1965, by 1978 it owned the second largest U.S.-flagged merchant fleet, with 44 ships.

Unfortunately, financial difficulties eventually beset Farrell Lines and the once impressive fleet has dwindled to just four ships -- roll-on, roll-off carriers of cars and trucks. Farrell Lines now exists as a subsidiary of the shipping giant Maersk and oper-ates routes principally to ports along the East Coast and Gulf Coast of the United States and to various ports in the Middle East.

The Farrell Lines Playing Cards that I find so ap-pealing were likely issued during the company’s heyday, from 1948 to 1978. Because a freight shipping company with routes world-wide probably did not depend on advertising playing cards to spread the word, I am inclined to believe that these Congress double deck sets were never actually sold by the company, rather just given to customers as souvenirs. And what superbly beautiful decks they are! The Farrell Line decks present glorious paintings and photos of mighty cargo ships in exotic ports where the sights of palm trees, native porters, and Chinese junks are commonplace. The pictures on the backs of these decks evoke fond memories of old adventure movies and the way things must have been when Hong Kong and Macau were still European colonies.

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The decks themselves are not worth much. They can be had on eBay for $20 or less for a mint dou-ble deck set. But in terms of daydreaming value, they are priceless!

Editor’s Note; I always enjoy Harry’s articles, par-ticularly because he usually focuses on playing cards which are newer and much more readily available. The Farrell Lines, with their striking backs, are certainly something to watch for. It would be an interesting collection to focus on of other Steamship Lines playing cards of this period, probably the fifties. I suspect there are many differ-ent one out there in Cardland!

WILDCARDS For you Bike collectors, here’s a curiosity!

Alex Clays sent me the neat item below which was manufactured by TOPPS Chewing Gum in 1975. I wonder if there were cards as well as bubble gum inside. Alex thought you Bike collectors might get a kick out of this.

And from Rod For the March, 2007 issue of CTD, I did an article titled “How Smart Can We Get about Smart Set?” in which I pictured several of the back designs in the Smart Set 400 Series. I also asked if anyone knew of others.

In your editorial note you asked the members for scans of any other back designs and mentioned that you knew of two, namely Neptuna and Tennis Girl.

I recently acquired Neptuna, Tennis Girl and Snow Girl and am attaching scans. However, as it turns out they are from the Standard Playing Card Com-pany’s Fancy Back Series 1001, not the Smart Set 400 Series.

I date Snow Girl c1926, Golf Belle c1925, Neptuna c1925 and Tennis Girl to c1928.

I do not know if this info appears in the supplement to Hochman of if you plan any further supplementa-tion but perhaps this info may be helpful.

Editor’s Note; Tom and I decided some time ago that we were finished publishing any more supple-ments to the Hochman Encyclopedia. However I would always like to publish any new findings that members might have in their collections or that they see in their travels.

This is a way we can keep PC information updated.

Snow Girl Standard Joker Standard Ace

Golf Belle Neptuna Tennis Girl

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WILDCARDS Celebrating Tom Steve Bowling sent me this beautiful tribute to Tom.

As we could often see at the conventions, Judy and Tom, strong individuals in their own right, had a special love for each other. This was reinforced at his memorial service with a moving eulogy by Judy and one of their sons. In addition to their large and loving family, Tom enjoyed a wide circle of friends, professional success and actively supported sever-al charitable causes. But he had a fifth dimension that few can bring to life - he (with Judy) enriched the lives of many others. Even with a wonderful family life and close friends, life is more joyful when we can find and pursue a passion. Tom and Judy offered that joy to every member of 52 Plus Joker - and as was evidenced by the many comments in Card Culture, we are grateful - and sad that we have lost someone so special.

Visconti-Sforza Tarot Deck Sherryl Smith a member and an authority on many details about Tarot cards sent the following.

I would like to correct some statements made about the Visconti-Sforza tarot deck in the March 2016 issue. On page 23, Joe Friedman states that the deck is located in the Wadsworth Atheneum. Actu-ally in the late 19th century the deck was divided into three parts. Thirty-five cards are owned by the Morgan Library in New York City; the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo, Italy, has twenty-six cards and thirteen are with the Colleoni family in Bergamo.

In his article Playing Card Trivia, Rod Starling in-verts the relationship between tarot and the stand-ard playing card deck. Tarot is not the forerunner of modern decks. In the 1430s, more than a half-century after the standard playing card deck had entered Europe from the Arab world, someone in northern Italy invented a new trick-taking game known in Italy as trionfi and later tarocchi, and as tarot in France. The game is played with a deck containing a fifth suit of illustrated trump cards. This suit was grafted onto the standard four suits of the playing card deck (with an extra court card in each suit). The game went through a period of ex-perimentation before settling into the standard 78-card tarot deck by the late fifteenth century. When playing cards switched to French suit signs in the early 1500s, the tarot deck retained the Italian suits of coins, cups, swords and batons. The 78-card tarot deck and 52-card deck have always existed simultaneously; one did not replace the other. The Italian deck mentioned on page 17 with 97 cards including the 12 signs of the zodiac is a Minchiate

deck. This is an expanded tarot deck that ap-peared several decades after the invention of the game of tarot/tarocchi. Tarot is not a pared-down Minchiate deck.

The Austrian deck described at the top of page 19 with French suits and folk scenes is a Tarock deck. This is a modernized tarot deck that became popu-lar in the late 1700s and quickly superseded the traditional Italian deck (Tarot de Marseille) for game playing. Occultists kept the Italian deck alive with their belief that it contained the keys to all meta-physical knowledge. The first documented evi-dence of tarot's association with divination and oc-cultism comes from France in the middle of the eighteenth century; but it's safe to assume the con-nection was actually made decades earlier.

The Tarot de Marseille is a direct descendant of 15th century Milanese decks. A forerunner of the Tarot de Marseille is the Cary Yale sheet of uncut woodblock cards from Italy about 1500, located in The Cary Collection of Playing Cards, The Beineke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale U. This collection also houses a Cary Yale tarot deck deco-rated in gold leaf like the Visconti-Sforza deck. It was commissioned in the 1440s by Duke Filippo Maria Visconti, father-in-law of Francesco Sforza who commissioned the Visconti-Sforza deck.

The imagery on the Visconti-Sforza trumps differs somewhat from the standard Tarot de Marseille im-ages because the Visconti-Sforza deck was a unique luxury item that doesn't necessarily resem-ble the mass-produced decks used for gaming in the mid-1400s.

Much of the information on 14th-to 16th-century playing cards found in older books has been super-seded by recent research. The Florentine Franco Pratesi has done an enormous amount of research in this area and has published hundreds of articles, most of them in the IPCS journal. He has very generously made all his articles available online by posting links to them at http://Naibi.net

Ed’s Note; thank you Sherryl, constant research is just another thing that adds to our delight in any antique collecting. I know that the Tarots have been your area of expertise for years and I appre-ciate the time you took to add to our knowledge.

I suggest again that all you members who would like to learn more about Tarot, check out Sherryl’s website Tarot Heritage - https://tarot-heritage.com it is a pretty fascinating read for anyone who are interested in this subject.

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SALESMAN SAMPLES

Recently Nadine Williams who works at the United States Playing Card Co. was looking for information on the Andrew Dougherty Tally-Ho cards and this sent me into our ephemera drawers and specifically to our collection of salesman sample cards that are attached together with a grommet. These have been an invaluable source of information for us over many years of researching, answering ques-tions, writing articles and sending scans as we were able to do on this subject for Nadine.

These sample cards are always actual cards from decks, and they come in any denomination as they are picked randomly. They generally feature differ-ent back designs on the reverse side, sometimes four or five and they usually show the different col-ors. They can have any amount of cards, ranging from two and up to as many as 32 attached by a single grommet.

I believe that these were probably issued between 1878 and 1915 and were carried by a salesman along with other promotional items, including cata-logues and flyers, to promote their products and be given to the various retailers they were hoping to attract.. Almost all the major manufacturers distrib-uted these samples cards, probably the best way to introduce their different lines and brands..

It always surprised me when we were able to find these treasures as they are fairly fragile, especially when joined together this way, as it is very easy to rip the grommet when fanning the cards.

Our favorite of these samples came in a slipcase box that was produced in 1889 by the Russell & Morgan Printing Company. It perfectly fit 15 differ-ent ones, their varieties at this time, and it also in-cluded a four page paper foldout with descriptions and prices of the various brands packed in the box. The most exciting thing about this collection was the sample for Bicycle Gold Edged playing cards because, along with six different backs, in two col-ors each (Acorn, Leaf, Old Fan, Lotus, Rider and Thistle), the reverse side included two Jokers, four of each of the Best Bower and the High Wheeler, which at that time very were rarely found.

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QUEEN VICTORIA DIAMOND JUBILEE DECK By Rod Starling

Before getting into this article, I must take sad no-tice of the passing of our club President, Tom Daw-son. Since its inception, Tom was a great driving force behind the successful administration of the club. He freely gave of himself in support of the membership and cheerfully shared his knowledge of the playing card field, knowledge that was une-qualled by any other. His revision, together his be-loved wife Judy, of the Hochman Encyclopedia of American Playing Cards is his legacy that will en-dure to the benefit to all card collectors for all time to come and for which we shall be forever thankful-ly indebted. To say that he will be sorely missed is a colossal understatement. Rod

In 1983 I purchased from Gene Hochman, the Charles Goodall deck that commemorated sixty years of Queen Victoria’s reign, her Diamond Jubi-lee. She ascended to the throne in 1837 and the deck was issued in 1897. The Queen went on to reign until her death in 1901. At the time Gene also gave me a pamphlet printed by the Bailey, Banks & Biddle Company of Pennsylvania that advertised the deck for which they were the sole agents for its distribution in the United States of America.

The pamphlet pictured below, describes the deck and includes twelve black and white photos of the court cards, but the text has puzzled me and the puzzle has now come to light because of a recent offering of the deck on eBay which the seller re-ferred to as an “1837-1901” deck. Now that was the problem, this deck and its box clearly set forth the years 1837-1901 while my deck and box just as clearly sets forth the years as 1837-1897. I am pic-turing the dates on the bottom of both decks. With that conflict in mind, I dug out the Bailey, Banks & Biddle pamphlet and reviewed the information therein. I also recalled that at the time I purchased the deck from Gene, he mentioned that there was an edition of the deck with a grey background to the Queen’s portrait on the back of the cards. The eBay seller’s deck has that grey background.

The wording of the pamphlet is a little ambiguous. This is what I believe the situation is concerning the two decks: It is important to note that in England, the Monarchs are honored by their likenesses be-ing placed on stamps, currency, coins etc. only dur-ing their lifetime. With that in mind, the statement starting the second paragraph of the pamphlet makes perfect sense. It says; “The recent death of Queen Victoria absolutely precludes the issue of a third edition of these cards…….”

However, it is the text preceding that language that I find confusing. It states that the first edition was completely sold out and that a second edition was specially printed by Goodall for Bailey, Banks & Biddle. The pamphlet refers specifically to the deck being the one issued for the Queen’s Diamond Ju-bilee and pictures the back design with the years 1837-1897. It therefore appears to me that there were clearly two editions of the deck referring to the Diamond Jubilee years of 1837-1967. And since the pamphlet clearly states that there could never be a third edition, what is the eBay deck all about? Obviously, it was issued upon the death of the Queen in 1901 but that violated the rule prohibiting the honoring of a Monarch after death. Further-more, if the eBay deck was issued to commemo-rate the Queen’s death, it is customary and usual to bracket the year of birth and the year of death, not the year of her ascendency to the throne and the year of her death as appears on the eBay deck.

This is my latest mystery. I will only add that except for the different years printed on the boxes and the backs of the cards and the grey background of the 1839-1901 deck, they are otherwise identical. Note that when the deck was sold in America, the price was Five Dollars shown in the pamphlet. That was quite a hefty price when standard decks were sell-ing at the time for as little as fifteen cents.

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The eBay deck sold for $80.00 with only one bidder and that seems a low price and a pity considering the historical value of the deck, not to mention its outstanding quality and relative rarity.

Another interesting fact; Queen Victoria was in the 64th year of her reign when she died. Queen Eliza-beth ascended to the throne in 1952 and in 2016, she also is in the 64th year of her reign.

God Save the Queen

There are many images of Queen Victoria pictured on playing cards; on the backs, on the faces, as a court card etc. I particularly love the one of the young Queen pictured below!

She was indeed a remarkable woman. Her reign, which spanned over 63 years, is known as the Vic-torian era. It was a period of industrial, cultural, po-litical, scientific, and military change was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire.

Ed’s Note; We once owned this 1901 deck which we also bought from Gene. It was a beautiful deck but we decided to sell it, not realizing that it was rare. I don’t remember seeing another during all our years of collecting. With the information Rod provided, I wonder if Goodall’s ended up printing a very small run. Or did the powers that be realised that in releasing this deck they were violating the rule prohibiting honoring a Monarch after death and decided to recall it. Perhaps Mike Goodall, who is Charles Goodall’s great-great-grandson, knows the answer as he certainly is the best source for any-thing relating to his families’ business.

Charles Goodall (1785-1851), came to London from Northampton, and was apprenticed in 1801 to John William Hunt, head of the old and established play-ing card manufacturer Hunt & Sons. The Goodall business was first established in Soho in 1820, printing playing cards and message cards. Their earliest cards were traditional in appearance, and resembled those of Hunt. In 1826, increasing busi-ness necessitated a move to larger premises, and then again, in the 1830s, the firm expanded into premises on Great College Street. This is when Goodall started experimenting with 'modernized' and other court card designs which gradually evolved into those that we are familiar with today. Charles’ two sons joined the family firm and by the middle of the century, Goodall and Thomas De La Rue were between them producing two-thirds of all playing cards made in England. Fifty years later Goodall and Son were leading the market with an-nual production of over 2 million packs!

I found this Goodall information, part of a much larger article written by Mike, on the wonderful website www.wopc.co.uk/goodall - Check it out!

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THE FIRESIDE AND CINNINATI GAME CO.’s

In 1896 The United States Playing Card Company decided to branch out into a new field. It saw a need for a series of games which would be educa-tional and instructive as well as provide pleasure for the younger audience. They were basically a quartet game. There was a lucrative market open for card games for children (although some were recommended for adults) which the company, until then had not made any moves to compete in.

It was with this market in mind that The Fireside Game Co. was founded. The first mention of this company and their games that we can find is in the eighth edition of Card Games and How to Play Them - 1895. Russell and Morgan Co. published a series of booklets, the first one in 1887 under the title of Popular Games of Cards. They continued to be issued for many years by USPC, ending with the much more familiar title - Official Rules of Card Games "Hoyle Up to Date". These books are a wonderful source of information, mainly through the numerous advertisements for the decks manufactured by USPC which are found in the back pages of each book.

By 1900, according to the 11th edition, the name was changed to The Cincinnati Game Co. and though the cards remained basically the same, most of the earliest boxes were changed. The Fireside Game boxes generally had a metallic colored insert with the name printed on top in the color of the rest of the box. The Cincinnati Game boxes were dark red with color variations and, judging from the ones we own, were more durable.

After going through the Official Rules of Card Games series I did not find any more references to this company. However we also have a 1916 USPC sample book from Toronto which has 13 double-backed pages, each one featuring one of these games. It is possible that this was old stock as the title page reads Educational Games "copyright, 1895-6-7-8-9, 1901-3-5".

We have scooped up these games for years whenever we have seen them priced reasonably, as they are early, interesting and manufactured by the United States Playing Card Company, the company which ranks highest in our favorite area of collecting. The games are often archaic but they offer fascinating photographic glimpses into the past. Of course they were manufactured with the same high standards that USPC was always been noted for both in quality and in the illustrations. They are relatively easily found and great to collect!

Below are listed the games and their numbers. 1100. Strange People 1101. Election 1102. Wild Animals 1103. Oak Leaves 1104. The Pines 1105. Maple Grove 1106. Chestnut Burrs 1108. White Squadron 1109. Our Union 1110. Population 1111. Flags 1112. Fraction-Play. 1113. In Castle-Land 1114. Individual and Progressive Niloe. 1115. In the White House 1116. Nationalities 1117. Artists or Famous Paintings 1118. In Dixie-Land 1119. Authors 1120. Young Folks' Favorite Authors 1121. The Mayflower 1122. Yellowstone 1123. Poems 1124. New Testament Game 1125. Arithmetic Play (the last of Fireside Games) 1126. Flowers 1127. Birds 1129. Mythology 1130. Shakespeare 1131. Astronomy

Some of the later titles; Addition and Subtraction Multiplication and Division Fractions Geometry Domestic Animals Word Play

Some notes about the Fireside Games: 1. Number's 1101 Election - 1103, Oak Leaves-1104, The Pines - 1105 Maple Grove - and 1106Chestnut Burrs are extremely difficult to find andwere probably not published for long. They are notshown in the sample book and not published underthe Cincinnati Co. name as they were notmentioned in the list given at the back pages ofeither our 1899 or 1900 Card Games.

2. We can't find any information on 1107 and 1128and wonder if they were ever published. Curiously Ihave shown an 1896 game deck titled “Poker Dice”#1107 and we have always wondered where it fit in.

3. In Dixieland, which shows wonderful early pho-tography of the South and its people, usually com-mands a much higher price than most of the others.

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DIFFERENT PERIOD GAME BOXES FOR THE FIRESIDE GAME COMPANY

Original Fireside Game Boxes – Chestnut Burrs, Population, Authors, and Arithmetic

Our Union, Game of Election, Poker Dice No. 1107 (was it the 1107 fireside game deck?) and Dixieland

Wonderful Photos from the Game of Dixieland

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DISCARDED PLAYING CARDS IN ETOBICOKE By Larry Fedoruk

Are discarded playing cards in Etobicoke part of a love story? What do mysterious, perhaps heartfelt, messages written on abandoned playing cards real-ly mean?

I have two hobby/interests: walking and taking pic-tures, plus a quirky collection related to those inter-ests and not yet complete. I am trying to assemble a complete deck of 52 playing cards made up of cards I find on the street (or in a park, gutter, on a floor, etc.). This is not an active pursuit like, say, rock collecting or antiquing. I’m not out every weekend searching through refuse in hopes of a queen of clubs. Plus discarded playing cards are hard to find. When it comes to popular litter, they rank low. I managed to collect 39 unique cards over many years and then virtually forgot about my collection until this past January.

It was midmonth and I was on a 90-minute walk to Cloverdale Mall. On The East Mall just south of Bloor St., another walker engaged me in conversa-tion. As we walked and talked, I spotted a seven of clubs face up at Redcar Ave.

“Excuse me total stranger, I have to stop and pick up some garbage. You see it’s a playing card and I have this collection…” I mumble awkwardly. She picked up her pace and moved on.

On the back of the seven was written the phrase: “The way I feel when I am with you.”

Huh? You feel like the seven of clubs? What does that mean? I could understand the phrase on a Queen or King, or even an Ace, but a seven? With-in steps, a ten of spades - this one too had some-thing written on the back, “You are disiplined (sic).”

I hurried home to dig out the old collection - gosh where was that envelope even hidden - and found to my pleasant surprise that I needed both the sev-en of clubs and the ten of spades. I was up to more than 40 cards. Maybe completing my collec-tion was possible in my lifetime after all. I did not think of it again until about three weeks later.

Once more I had decided on the Cloverdale walk. I saw no cards, but as I headed home I made a ran-dom decision to walk on the opposite side of the street. There, stuck in some twigs near a tree, were two playing cards, face up, a Jack of spades and a three of diamonds.

“Nah, it couldn’t be,” I thought. Sure enough, on the Jack was a phrase in the same pen and hand-writing: “All our family vacations we get to go on together.” The three was: “You always manage to get me everything I want even when it’s hard for you.”

These new cards were doubles in my collection, but now I had a second collection - discarded playing cards with messages on the back. I wondered who had written them and why, and why they had been thrown out. Was the romance over? Was it litter-ing based on heartbreak?

My curiosity might have ended there as the harsh brutal February that precluded the Cloverdale walk left snow hiding the waste and garbage that emerges so disgustingly each spring. But by mid-March another Cloverdale walk was in the offing. It was a nice sunny day, so the walk was slow and thoughtful. I was taking a lot of pictures. As I got near the mall I started to remember those playing cards I found and wondered if there were any more. At a stop light I saw piles of litter blown up against a chain-link fence. Something made me go over to it and I poked around with my walking stick.

Suddenly I saw it. The card was face down and all of the red pattern on the back had been washed away by winter, but not the Sharpie pen message! The handwriting was unmistakable. I had found another one. On the back of an Ace of diamonds it said, “Your troll/Shrek feet are REALLY starting to grow on me.”

Well, this was very playful. I couldn’t believe my joy.

I continued on and about a block later at the base of a street light I noticed a corner of red. Carefully, like an archeologist dusting ancient bones with a brush, I pushed away the dried-on grime to read the phrase, “You make me a better person.” I flipped it over — the Jack of diamonds. By the way, I needed both of those! My older collection was up to 43 now, the new one, up to six.

Now I had a genuine mystery on my hands. Why was I the one finding these?

Who was this card writer? What had happened that these were now just out on the street, all in this area? Why had the wind blown them my way?

I decided that an out-and-out search was neces-sary. Work and life delayed the search until Good

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Friday, almost three months since the original find. It was actually a perfect day. The weather was great and the mall was closed. No traffic or people to get in the way.

I walked to the mall, and I poked through every lit-ter-strewn pile at every bus stop, street corner, building site and tree base. I’m sure people thought I was homeless or out of my mind. I was definitely feeling the latter.

I came to the spot where I had found the Ace of diamonds, but there was nothing. I was feeling disheartened until near the opposite fence I saw the handwriting. “The little looks you give me when we are around friends.” Half faded and almost torn in two, was the King of hearts. Incredible!

I walked and searched for another two hours. I combed the fence lines where litter gathered. I walked through decorative reeds and shrubs around the mall. I did a grid search of the streets east of Cloverdale. This proved fruitless because the more I got into neighborhoods’ the more I was immersed in dutifully raked yards and cleaned driveways.

How dare they? I was giving up. Enough was enough. I would live to search another day.

But it was then that I noticed a patch of reeds I hadn’t searched yet. “Aw, one quick look,” I told myself, “then I’ll go home.” I walked up and there so plain and obvious was a card face down. Handwriting by now so familiar: “Your hugs are the best in the world,” written on a Queen of spades.

Since Good Friday, I have done three other exten-sive searches. I have returned to the same areas, and searched the grounds of a nearby schoolyard and park. I have walked east, north and south of Cloverdale looking at garbage. I combed an area of Dundas St. where there is a lot of litter, walking the ditches to the strange looks of passersby. The man walking in the ditch with a stick is usually given a wide berth when passing.

My new collection is at eight, the other remains at 43. I think I have given up the walking searches, asI have a feeling all that can be found has beenfound. The rest could have blown on to Bramptonby now for all I know.

I turned my search online and found an entire Tumblr page dedicated to 52 Reasons I Love You. The idea of writing romantic notions on the back of

playing cards and either gifting them as a deck or one at a time goes back at least eight years, well, at least online it does.

At first I thought the holes in the upper right corner of each card meant this was an old casino deck. Casinos will gift used decks but punch holes through them so that people don’t bring them back to cheat. Now I realize that many people punch the holes and put the cards on a large ring to keep them all together. The holes on the cards I have found are intact, so in this case they were not torn off the ring, but deliberately detached.

Also in my amateur sleuthing I have surmised, al-beit based on stereotypes, that the writer is a fe-male, perhaps a teen - an adult may have had the foresight to properly spell and space the word “disiplined” without almost running out of space on the ten of spades

The first two cards found in January were in pretty good condition, leading me to believe this relation-ship ended sometime around then. A post-Christmas breakup is always tough.

The family vacations message is enigmatic. If I stay with my premise that this is a youthful ro-mance, what does that phrase mean? Could it be a new extended family, a man and woman each with adolescent children who marry, and then a stepson and daughter discover romantic feelings for each other? Based on the other love phrases, I don’t think this is a sister to a real biological brother or a child to a parent kind of thing.

I suppose a handwriting analyst could tell me more. I suppose I could also go back and study wind pat-terns in Etobicoke for the last four months to find new areas to search. A friend recommended I take the cards with me, walk the neighbourhoods, and stop people on the street, asking if they’ve seen any of these cards or know anything about them.

Larry Fedoruk is a Bell Media talk show host

Editor’s Note; I hope Larry will forgive my copying this story but it is too good to keep to myself. Just another interesting way of collecting playing cards!!

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This amusing story was sent to me a number of years ago from a non-collector as an interesting story for card collectors. I had never heard this tale but I love Frank’s card collection – certainly an un-usual concept and I do applaud his tenacity!

On Feb. 15, 1890, the following short story ap-peared in the Chicago Tribune, telling the story of a man who had an unusual deck of cards. He found every card lying on the street and it took him twenty years to collect the entire pack.

AN OLD DECK OF CARDS A Chicago Sport Spent 20 Years Picking up a Pack

Frank Damek, a member of the sporting fraternity of Chicago, has probably the queerest deck of cards in the world. He has spent twenty years col-lecting the pack and is exceedingly proud of it. He first began by picking up playing cards in the street when he happened to run across them. In this way he got fifteen or more before he began striking du-plicates. Some days he would find two or three, then it would be months before he would see an-other stray card. But he persevered and always kept his eyes open to add to his strange collection.

In ten years he had all but thirteen cards necessary to complete his deck. In the next three years he considered himself lucky in finding all but four. The missing ones were the jack of clubs, the deuce of diamonds, and the trey of spades. In the course of another year he picked up the eight of diamonds and six months later was overjoyed to find what he at first thought was a full deck of cards lying on the sidewalk on Dearborn Street, between Adams and Jackson streets.

He thought his long search was at an end and that he could easily complete his wonderful deck. The jack of clubs and the trey of spades were there all right, but five or six cards were missing, and among them, the deuce of diamonds. It seemed as though he would never be able to secure his fifty-second card, but the other day he entered one of the sub-urban trains on the Northwestern, and almost the first thing he saw was the deuce of diamonds face upwards in the aisle. It was gilt-edged and glossy backed, the finest of them all. He had been search-ing for it for five and a half years!

The pack is composed of cards of all qualities, from the cheapest to the highest prices. Some are clean and bright and others are soiled and well worn.

Is this a true story or a figment of someone’s imagi-nation. We will probably never know!

Sometimes collecting playing cards allows us the chance to do something quite different. The story of the Old Deck of Cards reminded me of the fol-lowing deck (which I wrote about years ago).

THE CONGRESS MULTI PLAYING CARD DECK

One of my very favorite decks has always been the Multi Playing Cards deck which was produced by the United States Playing Card Company in 1899-1904. It is a 53 card pack of gold-edged Congress cards with each card having a different back de-sign. For 10¢, you could send away for this unusu-al deck perhaps to use for solitaire. But in reality it was a probably a marketing ploy issued with the hope that when you saw and handled these ‘supe-rior’ cards with their 53 diverse and beautiful de-signs you would want to head out and purchase a Congress deck (or two) with your favorite back.

The box printed in gold on the front and back of the dark red slipcase which reads

666 MULTI PLAYING CARDS 53 Different Pictorial Backs in each Pack

For Solitaire, Souvenirs Etc. Copyright 1899-1-2-3-4

THE US PLAYING CARD CO. Cincinnati, U.SA.

Our deck, with its wonderful variety of back designs comes with a linen texture (Air-Cushioned) and I wondered if it might have been issued with a smooth finish. Sometime later I spotted an empty Multi box at Gene Hochman’s and asked if I could buy it as I wanted to try to complete a mint deck of 53 different cards with a smooth surface. He hand-ed it me and said, "I bet you will never be able to complete this". What a challenge! It took years but I did it and I treasure my almost perfect smooth gold-edged Multi deck as much as my original.

Two further things; firstly, these decks are very rare but I have seen the Multi deck twice on ebay, fin-ished with a smooth surface, and in poor condition. In both cases they contained duplicate backs so they were probably later put-togethers. Secondly, the two boxes are slightly different - my original box has a textured linen finish and my second - you’ve got it - is smooth and shiny! Except for a very slight variance in color, the two boxes are identical.

What a fun project this was and I thank my fellow members who have helped me over the years to complete my much loved Multi deck!

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FACT SHEET: MAGNA CARTA PLAYING CARDS By Lee Asher

The Magna Carta Series is a commemorative playing card series that celebrates the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta. The set integrates an interactive package design system with the story of the event itself to create an engaging experience for collectors. The black and white deck series frames the dueling nature of the Rebels vs. the Royals and focuses on the tension between uniting and separating these elements through both the faces and sides of the tuck boxes, making this the most flexible display system in the market. The secondary mural reveals the Magna Carta signing when fully assembled allowing for a commemorative display to be shown.

NAME: Magna Carta 800th Anniversary Set DISTRIBUTED Seasons Playing Cards Chicago) ORIGINAL RETAIL PRICE: $29.95/set/$15.95 each MANUFACTURED BY: USPCC MANUFACTURED IN: Erlanger, Kentucky USA SIZE: Poker (2.5" x 3.5") PRINTING PRESS USED: Sheet fed / Q1 YEAR PRINTED: 2015 ARTIST: Alexander (Shung Shung) Chin NUMBER OF CARDS IN DECK: 56 QUANTITY: 5,000 JOKER(S): Each card features a side of the King's official seal used on the Magna Carta. ADVERTISING CARD: Rebels Card + Gaff Joker with King of Clubs Reveal), Royals (Diptych Mural display) FINISH: Magic Finish STOCK INFORMATION: Aristocrat Stock TYPE OF CUT: Standard CELLOPHANE: Sealed cello around the tuckbox TEAR BAND (SECURITY): Clear TAX STAMP/ CLOSURE SEAL: None TUCK FOILING: Gorgeous gold foil highlights that accent connecting illustrations TUCK EMBOSSING: Embossed vertical ribbing emulating the pleated uniform textures of knights METALLIC INK: Gold metallic ink TYPE OF COURT STANDARD: Custom illustrated courts representing actual historical figures around the Magna Carta event. ACE OF SPADES: Features King John's cross in the center represented on his cape in the mural. BACK DESIGN: The Royals deck commands attention in rich black, representing the King and his empire. The sleek back design features the gorgeous crowned lion in which three heads represent the three lion crest of the Angevin

Empire. The Rebels deck is featured in white, displaying intricate line-work and a composition showing multiple "regions" to symbolize all the different barons uniting against the King. The ribbon displays the famous phrase, Legem Terrae meaning "Law of the Land". TUCKBOX DESIGN: Each box features a partial image of all 4 family crest illustrations across the faces. This allows for 4 different custom displays based on what the collector decides to present. Each side also reveals a sliver of the Magna Carta signing which assembles to create the full mural. The interior print of the box features the Magna Carta itself. The interior flap features the surviving mantra of the Magna Carta that embodies the liberty that we all know today.

Other Notes of Interest: Together the ribbon from the Rebels deck and the ribbon from the royals deck, unite to create a perfect circle representing a temporary moment of unity between the two sides referencing the circular shape of the King's seal.

Each Ace symbolizes a family of courts. Spades (Cross of King John), Clubs (Lion Face of the Angevin Empire), Hearts (Fleur-de-lis + Sword of the Rebels), Diamonds (Shield Crest of the Leader of the Rebels)

A special Kickstarter edition King John deck was produced to expand the mural for a more expanded view including Pope Innocent III utilizing the Rebels deck gilded by hand. A run of 500 gold and 800 silver were created placed in a King John box representing the origins of the Magna Carta tax crisis of the King stealing the baron's gold and silver.

For more information about the Magna Carta decks, please visit Alex Chin's official website - http://www.SeasonsPlayingCards.com.

Editor’s Note; this is a really beautiful set of playing cards, Alex, I love the colors and the designs. Kudos to you on a well done job!

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