August 2018
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After several months of sorting out our newly acquired collection, we've finally come to a nicer stage: sorting the decks for our own collection by country and only checking a few duplicates to see if they are an improvement of our own decks. The rest are all new to us and there are some surprising decks. In the last week of this month we came across three nice Lithuanian decks and we had a hard time deciding which deck to show here. |
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We could have shown any of these three decks here, they all had special and exciting designs on the courts. The choice was between the Vaivorykste deck (also known as "Höffische Spiel") and a pretty similar designed deck, called Klubams (for clubs). Klubams fell off the table and we chose the joker from the Vaivorykste (Rainbow) deck as Joker of the Month. So for this spot we went for the "Gedimino Stulpai" deck. It were the unusual layout and the special designed pips that tipped the scale.
As our knowledge about Lithuanian decks is just as limited as the decks in our present collection, we looked at the WWPCM site and the WOPC site. They both mentioned Spindulys Printing House as manufacturer of 6 decks, of which the 3 decks mentioned above are part. The information about the decks and the pictures on the WOPC site were for the greater part provided by Albinas Borisevicius and the information about the manufacturer came from Tadas Jurys.
Lithuania is one of the 3 small Baltic states, but has covered a much larger area in the past. Around 1400 it was one of the largest countries in Europe. Halfway the 16th century it formed a commonwealth with Poland and this lasted until the end of the 17th century, when the commonwealth was partitioned by Russia, Prussia and Austria. Most of Lithuania was occupied by the Russian empire and this lasted until the end of WW I, when Lithuania became an independent state again. Not long before WW II started it was occupied by the Russians and during WW II by the Germans. After the war had ended Lithuania became a Soviet Republic under control of the Russian Soviet Union again until independence was declared in March 1990. Since May 2004 it's a member of the European Union.
The Spyndulis
printing house, situated in Kaunas, was formed by combining 3 print shops:
Svyturis, Varpas and Raides. Spyndulis started their production in 1928 and is
still active at the present moment, but mainly as a book printer. The card
production stopped after WW II. Our chosen deck here was printed around 1930 and
published as "Gedimino Stulpai", which is translated as "The
Columns of Gediminas".
Gediminas was the Grand Duke of Lithuania from around 1315 until his death in
1341. He is seen as one of the most important figures in Lithuanian history: the
Grand Duke who literally "made Lithuania great again". Under his reign
Lithuania expanded and stretched from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea. The
Columns (or Pillars) of Gediminas refer to an ancient Lithuanian symbol and once
the Lithuanian coat of arms. The symbol is in appearance close to the trident.
The suit symbols in the deck are said to be variations of the trident.
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On the
WOPC site Tadas Jurys mentions that at
that time the playing-card designers were Mstislavas Dobužinskis
(1875–1957) and Barbora Didžiokienė (1896 - 1976). We couldn't
find any name or initials, but probably one of them was responsible for
these designs. |
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The
aces are all embellished with rather spiky, Art Deco like designs. For the scan we've
placed the central spades symbol in its upright position, but guess that
it should have been used upside down too. There's a Lithuanian tax stamp
on the AD. Peter Endebrock dates it as c1925, but it was probably in use
until 1944. The full text reads "Lietuvos
Valstybes Monopolio Kortos" (Lithuania State Playing-card
Monopoly). |
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