deck-16-11

Since I've joined the "Playing Card Collectors Club" on Facebook, I've presented there some of the decks that have arrived in our mailbox during this month. I've also added pictures there of the two main events this month: a Collectors Fair in Nieuwegein and the Collectors Bourse in Utrecht. So, besides my 65th anniversary and a busy social life, it was a good month for playing cards too and by the end there was a whole stack of decks to process into our collection.
Consequently there was an interesting shortlist to choose from. Worth mentioning are the HP Moulding deck by the Uusi Studio, shown in Art & Cards section, and a hand made deck printed on leather patches, in a leather box.

But we chose this "Souvenir de la Suisse Patience No 250" deck by Conrad Ludwig Wüst. The company logo and one of those still mysterious numbers can be found on the Jack of Clubs. There were two reasons for us to choose this deck. The first was that we had never seen these images in this oval shape before and the second was that it seems to be a "sister" deck of the "Patience Karten No 240" deck that was our Deck of the Month in October 2011. The courts have completely different designs and there are indices and numbers on the cards, but..... it has the same back design and comes in a similar looking oval box. To see for yourself, first click the year 2011 (top, left) and then the 10 for October (top, right).

Based on the similarity we can date this deck as from about 1910 too. The images on the courts immediately seemed familiar and when we checked the Wüst part of our collection, we found that they were taken from the "Album Suisse Cartes Patience No. 90" deck from about 1900. There they are set against a scenic background. In a similar oval shape, but centered in square cornered cards, with the suit signs and regional shields in the corners and not in the design. However, the figures and shields in this oval deck are exactly the same in each suit, just like the scenes on the aces.

	Perhaps this deck was meant for export to Switzerland too. The title is in French and it mentions 52 "cartes".