DECK OF THE MONTH

Just like the "Joker of the Month" in the Jokers section we will select a "Deck of the Month" from all the decks that we could add to our collection during that month. It will be what we consider our best find. We've started this section in April 2007 and without any doubt we can say here that over the years there will be antique, vintage and modern decks shown on these pages. Age, design and value of the chosen decks may be very different each time.

The first thing that I noticed was that they are printed on ordinary, rather thin card stock. And apparently acidic, which could -without a finishing layer- explain the yellowing of the cards. The cards have square corners and measure about 56 by 81 mm. I say about, because the cutting wasn't done as precise as it should. All this points towards a printer, who wasn't used to produce a deck of cards. However, he did know his colour lithographic printing.

	The deck came with only one side of the original sleeve (not a box) that was used to hold the deck. It was the side with the title and info in Hebrew. The back side shows that the sleeve was printed on one side of part of a postcard. Another hint towards a cheap production.
	As Dudley Ollis only had the Hebrew side the only info he had written on the plastic bag in which the deck was kept was: c1920 - "Haduchifat". However, the correct name of the publisher is Duchifat Press.
	I found a scan of the other side of the sleeve on the WWPCM site, with the information in English.

So the official title is "Artistic Palestine Play-Cards". The designs were done by Ze'ev Raban was born in Lodz, Poland, in 1890 and began his studies there. Since 1905 he studied at different European art schools, such as the Munich School of Applied Art, where he became influenced by Jugendstill, and in 1907 at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, where he followed classes in Neoclassism, and finally in Brussels at the Acédemie Royale des Beaux Arts, at that time the center of Art Nouveau. He left Europe in 1912.
In 1906 Boris Schatz, a German artist, had founded the Bezalel art school in Jerusalem. After his arrival in Israel Raban immediately went to Bezalel and finished his studies there. In 1914 he became a faculty member and as lector and director of the Graphic Press and Industrial Art Studio the most influencing artist at Bezalel. He had to stop his activities when the school was closed down due to financial difficulties in 1929.

In 1921 Ze'ev Raban participated in a historic art exhibition at the Tower of David in Jerusalem. It was the first exhibition of Jewish art in Palestine. This event could well have been a reason for publishing this deck and a nice project for his department at Bezalel too.

Anyway, time to see how his work has been influenced at the European art schools......
I've enlarged the queens to show the finer details in design and print.
The captions are short. If interested, click the names to learn more at Wikipedia.

	In the present time frame, with a war going on on Palestinian soil between the Israeli army and Hamas, placing this deck here may seem to be a bit controversial. But this is 2024 and a century ago there was a different situation. During the last quarter of the 19th century a movement had arisen to establish a Jewish homeland around mount Zion (Jerusalem). This Zionism was founded on the negative approach of Jewish people throughout Europe and the pogroms in Eastern Europe. In 1917 it successfully lead to the Balfour Declaration by the British government, in which the creation of a homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine was supported. After the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in WW I, a mandate was assigned to Britain for the civil administration in Palestine and Transjordany during the international allied meeting in San Remo in April 1920. However, the mandate also required Britain to put the Balfour Declaration in effect and create a home for the Jewish people alongside the Palestinian Arab population. Ze'ev Raban moved to Palestine in 1912 during the so-called Second Aliyah, a wave of some 35.000 Jewish immigrants into Ottoman Palestine between 1904 and 1914. The First Aliyah, between 1881 and 1903, had already brought some 25.000 Jewish immigrants into the region. Already in 1891 Asher Svi Hirsch Hinsberg (pseudonym Ahad Ha'am), who had visited Palestine to observe the progress of the First Aliyah, wrote a warning to his fellow Jews and I'll leave you with this quote..........
"not to arouse the anger of the indigenous people by harming them ... We must be careful in our dealings with a foreign people among whom we have returned to live, treating these people with love and respect and, needless to say, with justice and common sense. And what do our brothers do? Quite the opposite! They were slaves in their diaspora, and suddenly they find themselves with unlimited freedom, wild freedom that only a country like Turkey (the Ottoman Empire) can offer. This sudden change has planted despotic tendencies in their hearts, as always happens with former slaves ('eved ki yimlokh – when a slave becomes king – Proverbs 30:22). They treat Arabs with hostility and cruelty, beat them shamefully without sufficient reason, and even boast about their actions. There is no one to stop the flood and put an end to this despicable and dangerous tendency. Indeed, our brethren were right when they said that the Arab respects only those who show courage and bravery. But if these people feel that the law is on their rival's side and, even more so, if they are right to think that their rival's actions are unjust and oppressive, then, even if they remain silent and endlessly reserved, they keep their anger in their hearts. And these people will be vindictive like no one else."
The British Mandate, during which there had already been an Arab revolt and a Jewish insurgency, ended on May 15, 1948. On the last day the Jewish community there proclaimed the Israeli Declaration of Independency.


Menorah	Pomegranate	Oak leaf	Star of David

	November 2024
	So the deck arrived one day after I had placed last month's deck on this spot, but I was over the moon to finally hold the cards in my hands. I've been active on eBay from February 1996 to 2019 and I remember seeing this deck there once in the early years and never again. It went for a high price, much too high for us at that time. So when I saw the deck in the auction of yet another part of the Dudley Ollis collection.......
I had to go beyond the amount that I had intended to bid. However, no regret, once I felt the cards.

In the Hebrew Bible Saul was a king in ancient Israel and Judah, first of the United Monarchy.		Jonathan appears in the Book of Samuel in the Hebrew Bible as the eldest son of king Saul.


Judith, a Jewish widow, saves Jerusalem from destruction.

Solomon was the successor of David and the fourth king of Israel and Judah. He is said to have had 700 wives and 300 concubines.		Asmodai is usually seen as a demon but king Solomon invokes him to aid in the construction of the temple (click for the full story)


Solomon and the Queen of Sheba: a sexual relation?

In the Book of Esther Ahasuerus is a king, husband of Esther, who is said to have ruled over 127 provinces, from India to Nubia.		Haman was the prime minister under king Ahasuerus. When he ordered to kill all Jews, he was hanged by the king instead.


Esther is the heroine in her own Book of Esther.

David was a shepherd and harpist, who got his fame from slaying Goliath, before becoming the third king of the United Monarchy.		Joab was the nephew of king David and commander of his army. His death was later ordered by king Solomon.


Bath-Sheba means daughter of Sheba.

The backs show the signs of the Zodiac, grapevines and a peacock.

The deck consists of 52 cards, no joker was ever issued.