deck-23-10


This month the main event was the 52+J convention in Cleveland, actually in the "suburb" Strongsville. It was good to see my American friends again and meet the young generation of collectors too. The 52+Joker club has definitely been rejuvenated under Lee Ascher, the president of the club since around 2010.		It was an interesting mix and although I hadn't planned to buy anything there, I brought back 1 joker and 3 decks. The joker will be the Joker of the Month and the decks, titled Sisterhood, were first presented during the convention. A gold and silver edged edition of 52 numbered decks each seemed a good investment.

But they didn't qualify for this spot, although the theme of the deck has an interesting angle. All courts are female, as in some other, already known feminist decks, but it's based on a survey among 230 of the 568 female magicians worldwide. The results are reflected in the designs of the courts. The deck comes with an explicative leaflet.

So the deck for this spot had to come from our collection again. Above you've already seen the name and number of the deck, so now the maker and date: Antoine van Genechten, 1893. For some reason Van Genechten must have been very protective of these designs. Sometimes a bit covert, but the name of Van Genechten and their location Turnhout can be found on all the courts and aces, together with "déposé", a sort of copyright protection. They even put their trademark on the shield of the Jack of Clubs (influenced by the Paris pattern perhaps??).
Although it's a not often seen non-standard deck, for me the attraction of this deck are the scenes on the aces. Not only do they show scenes from India, which is unusual in Belgian made decks, but these are done with much finer detail than the usual scenic aces that the Belgian manufacturers published with their standard patterned decks. Of course the chromolithographic printing helps here. On the courts it also brings some more colour to their faces.
I've looked at the courts for some time, but couldn't really distinguish a pattern, neither in place or time, per suit. All courts seem to have Caucasian features. The king of spades could represent a Templar Knight, judging by the red cross on his chest, and the king of hearts could represent King David with his harp. The black queens are depicted in a somewhat exotic dress and the red queens in a more European one. BTW anyone to recognize that small flag of the QC?
The jacks show common soldiers. Can't place the jacks of clubs and diamonds, they look a bit Middle Eastern, but the jack of spades definitely is a Roman soldier, holding his fasces.

There seems to be a misprint on the Ace of Hearts. The heart pip should have been printed upside down too. Now the 'déposé" is upside down. In the book about playing cards from Turnhout (Autenboer/Cremers, 1983) 4 cards from this deck are shown. The AH there has the same misprint.

But is it a misprint? I believe that in India in Hinduism the inverted heart is called "sacred heart", a recognized symbol of love there too. So it's possible that Van Genechten was aware of this and the deck was intended to be produced for the Indian market. It would also explain why this deck isn't often seen here, not even in Belgium.

The deck consists of 52 cards. No joker was ever issued. Our deck came without a box.