JANUARY 2026

Apparently it's the Dutch month here. Not only is the Deck of the Month Dutch, but now I've chosen a Dutch joker as well. And...... both are a bit of a mystery.
I found this joker among the vast offer at the collectors meeting in Geel, Belgium, which is held on the first Sunday of February, April, September and November. Today that posed a small problem. I didn't want to browse through Miriam's albums....again, so I had decided to go to Geel and find a suitable joker there for this spot and do the update a little later.

It was my first visit to this meeting and I was impressed by the number of attendants and dealers. I had always assumed that, being a follow-up of the meetings in Hasselt, the offer would be mostly jokers and backs, but there was a good number of decks on offer too. Although the offer didn't show much antique decks, there were interesting vintage and modern decks to be found. My quest was to find a joker, but as I had brought jokers and decks myself too I was more preoccupied with selling than with browsing the other tables. However, this one caught my eye. The joker comes from a Dutch deck, described as G-J and dated as c1944. The name was derived from the design on the box, which shows a shield with a monogram of these letters. The dating was based on the flimsy paper, scarce by the end of WWII here, on which it was printed. So a bit of a mystery deck too. 
The courts had the international pattern, but with one oddity........

a smiling jack.

Almost too late I realized that February is a short month, so the both the Deck of the Month and this Joker of the Month were chosen on the 28th. But, in between going out for groceries around noon and a quick diner at 8, I managed to do the research and write the articles within a day.
As I didn't acquire any decks or jokers this month, both deck and joker had to come from the collection. The Deck of the Month was found in one of the piles of decks on my desk and for the joker I took out Miriam's B/W album.

There was one competitor, by chance also from Germany, but this one won. The joker was a standard joker of Walter Scharff AG, a printing and publishing company, which was active between 1923 and 1931. It was one of the 2 jokers that came in decks with the Berlin pattern. This is an early one, with only two times JOKER printed at the sides. It probably dates from around 1925.
When I looked it up, I recognized the second joker that came with the Berlin patterned decks. It's also a very nice one.
Maybe next month?

A vintage joker, so not February's antique brother. He turned out to be a stepbrother anyway (different back) and I offered him for sale in Tom van Berkum's FB group. Tom himself was the buyer and at this moment the joker is on his way to be handed to him at the collectors meeting in Geel on April 5.
When you're a joker collector and interested to buy, sell or swap jokers Tom's group could become one of your sources. If you're not familiar with his group: Joker Collectors Club - Buy, Sell, Swap | Facebook

Among others I offered some nice American jokers from the 1930's there, of which each was nice enough to earn a spot here. But they were all sold and I didn't find it appropriate to show a joker here, which had left the collection before this update. 
So I took out a random holder ("Sitting Jokers"), browsed through it to see which one would catch my eye first. And this was the one. It looked German to me, but to be sure of it's origin I used a handy tool to search for specific jokers on the WWPCM website. Result: made by the Bielefelder Spielkarten and dated as 1972. It came with standard Berlin patterned decks. So it shouldn't be a difficult joker to find. Still, although masked he's a jolly guy.

The jokers of the month from.....