[Chuqii] KEM collection and lots of antique and vintage decks from all over

[Chuqii]

Mailman Monday, once again. Here's is a deck of No. 71 Los Leones from United States Playing Card Co. c1897. This deck has 48 cards and features Spanish suits of Coins, Cups, Wands, and Swords. According to Hochman, originally made for the Chicago World's Fair in 1893 as a 40 card deck for playing Hombre.

[Chuqii]

Another trip to the archives for this Mailman Monday. I'm a bit peeved at the USPS today since some decks I ordered from North Carolina were last seen in Puerto Rico, and currently being hunted down in Atlanta, but if those show up I'll share them here.

Here is a Kalamazoo Playing Card Co deck - Strollers, c1910 based upon the style of Ace of Spades.

[Chuqii]

Mailman Monday redemption. After leaving North Carolina on Aug 21, cards finally arrived last Friday after a little vacation down in Puerto Rico then a jaunt through Georgia and Florida, but it was worth the wait. I added two Willis W. Russell Mogul decks and two American Bank Note decks to the collection. Both companies were short-lived in the 1900s and were folded into Russell Playing Card Co around 1912. Be sure to zoom in on those back designs.

[Chuqii]

For today's Ephemera Friday I have two 1950s advertisements for Bicycle and Congress Playing Cards from my collection, one from 1957 and one from 1958. One, and maybe both, are from The Saturday Evening Post and they measure 10.5" x 13.5". Nice and big. The 1957 ad is interesting in that it shows the top of the tuck with 808 centered, but the 808 had been moved to the side by 1954.

[Chuqii]

Another deck from last week's Mailman Monday haul: c1915 Northern Pacific Railroad deck, Yellowstone Park Line. Highly enameled, these are in excellent condition and still playable. Might break these out for a hand or two at the next poker night, provided everyone washes their hands and keeps all food and drink away from the table.

[Bradius]

Okay, well pass the joint and cheetos and deal me in.

[GandalfPC]

I have a general rule that I won’t travel further than 22,000 miles for a poker game, but if you’re within that distance I’m in.

[Chuqii]

Ephemera Friday (Wednesday edition) - Doing some traveling, but I wanted to post this interesting find courtesy of Google Books. These are pages from the 1924 Italian Bollettino dei marchi di fabbrica (I'm assuming trade mark registry) showing various NYCCC tuck box designs from the time. There are a couple of brands I had not heard of before.

[Chuqii]

Mailman Monday! Last week the mailman helped me out with my KEM collection. I added a new metal KEM clamshell deck to the collection (shown below with my other metal KEM clamshells). The white pearl one is the new one. Came with the 1944 Kent cards. Back row deck designs, from left to right, are Fresco, Pinochle, and Carnations.

[GandalfPC]

Nice clams

[Chuqii]

I got my hands on a Mrs. Robinson's 1955 Playing Card Collector's Handbook for this Ephemera Friday, and it is even signed by the author. Great resource showing 81 Bicycle different back designs. If you would like to see the whole Handbook, head over to Joseph Pierson's excellent site - https://bicyclecards.org/ - and here is a link: https://bicyclecards.org/mrs-robinsons/ I saw one other copy available online if you are looking for one.

[Chuqii]

Look what the Mailman dragged in today. USPCC 1927 500 deck with the Swastika back design in near minty fresh condition.

[Chuqii]

Postal service resumes today after the Columbus Day / Indigenous People's Day holiday, so we are back with Mailman Monday.

Here is a back design I'd been trying to track down for a while. I would see it on the back of Delta decks, but the cards inside would have the Maverick back design. Finally, found this Eckerd deck (a store brand for Eckerd Drug Stores), and while I do like the back design, the cards are not great. This one is a Trump brand deck from Hoyle, but I think it was also made under other Hoyle brand names. And I think the Delta brand took the place of the Eckerd labeled deck as Eckerd's store brand, much like Studs for Walgreens. No bar code anywhere, so I'm estimating 1970s. Anyway, here you go.

[Chuqii]

I've been out of pocket, so let's do a little catching up for the last Ephemera Friday. Here are some great image from a 1914 Wyeth Hardward Catalog which you can find online [/i]here: https://archive.org/details/WyethHardwa ... 3/mode/2up

[acetofive]

Organized very neatly between knives, dice, and ammunition.

[Chuqii]

Yep, everything you need for a friendly game of cards.

[Chuqii]

Still catching up - here is a c1895 Boston No. 55 Full-House deck from National Card Co. These cards were for playing the game of 500, so they include 11s and 12s in each suit.

[Chuqii]

Ephemera Friday on the radio, c1926. Back in the 1920s, the game of bridge was HUGE. USPCC had a weekly Bridge by Radio program they broadcast, and these 6 pamphlets covered the weeks in October and November of 1926. Looks like they provided a written description and examination of how the bridge games that were played on the broadcast. Also nice that they have illustrations of some of the USPCC tucks and boxes from the time on the back.

[Honeybee]

Amazing, you can see (above) how it is suited to writing and you can imagine it as video (thinking WSOP) But Radio! I guess it could have been game analysis discussion

[Chuqii]

Nothing fancy today, but it did lead to a belated observation.

Here is a 1938 NYCCC Bee No. 92 Club Special deck with Back No. 67. Classic Bee deck.

What I have belatedly realized is that the shrunken Bicycle courts against which I rail were not a new design, but were already being used in the Bee line. They just changed the Bicycle courts to the Bee designs (which is pretty easy when you own both companies). Bee's have some green in them though, which is nice.

[Chuqii]

Here's another blast from the past:

Champion Playing Cards from ARRCO, distributed by S & K Sales Co., New York.

Given that the decks only have black and white jokers and no brand name on the Ace of Spades, these are likely from the 1940s or early 1950s. Both decks are minty, which is nice.

[Chuqii]

TGIEF - Thank God It's Ephemera Friday

For the next few weeks, I'll be posting some of my old USPCC advertising pages from the 1940s. Let's start off in 1941 with some witty illustrations

[Chuqii]

Mailman Monday, Thanksgiving edition.

I am thankful for this two deck set of sealed Pullman Co. playing cards that I picked up recently. This is one of my all-time favorite back designs, and I already had an open deck of the bridge size so you can see the cards. My open deck dates to 1939, and my sealed decks should be around that same time frame. The sealed decks are interesting in that the entire tuck box is wrapped instead of the cards inside. You can see an earlier wide version at this old post of mine - viewtopic.php?f=45&t=6900&p=119876&hili ... an#p119876

[Chuqii]

Early start to Ephemera Friday this week due to the holiday. I present for your Thanksgiving entertainment two ads from 1942 and 1943 espousing the pleasures of playing cards. Be sure to grab a deck and play some cards with your family and friends this holiday.

[Chuqii]

Today's Mailman Monday comes to us from the Great White North courtesy of Canada Post.

This is the Canadian made version of Bicycle Rider back playing cards c1930. They were made by the USPCC subsidiary International Playing Card Co at the plant in Windsor, Ontario which is directly across from Detroit. Note the circle in star markings on the Joker instead of the usual intertwined US.

[Chuqii]

It's Ephemera Friday and here are a few more old USPCC advertisements, this time from 1944. Nice pic of the USPCC family of cards at the time (and some math!)

[Chuqii]

Mailman Monday, and I really should have seen this one coming: No 62x Ye Witches Fortune Cards c1896 from USPCC. Really interesting deck, so I posted pics of all the cards. Not sure what is going on with the hair on the courts.

[GandalfPC]

Nice deck

One of those went for about $750 on a Potter & Potter auction last year

[Chuqii]

I might have to give ol’ Potter & Potter a ring. I haven’t had this deck long enough to get too attached to it (but it is very nice) …….. most I’ve ever sold a deck for was $800.

[GandalfPC]

https://auctions.potterauctions.com/Lot ... ryid=53209