March 2024

It had been standing on my desk for a while now, a pile of 7 decks, all with different versions of the same deck. I had won this lot in the previous Dominic Winter auction, so they came from the Dudley Ollis collection. 
We had never owned any of them. It had been somewhere in the lower regions of our wish list. That had a reason. On eBay we found out that there were at least 2 versions of this deck and we found one of them much more attractive than the other, but rather difficult to find too. Now that I have a number of different versions, I choose to show that more attractive one here, but the other versions will get some attention too. The enlarged portrait is to illustrate the fine chromolithographic printing of this version.

This deck is known as Kimberley's Royal National Patriotic Playing Cards. It was the title which William Kimberley, who created and published it, gave to this deck. The suits represent different countries, powerful in the late 19th century. Spades represent France, Hearts the U.S.A., Clubs Germany and Diamonds the U.K. The portraits on the courts are recognizable, a bit stiff in my opinion, and some of the depicted historical figures have been changed during the different editions.
According to the WOPC site the shown cards here are from the second edition, but this isn't the only source used. Thanks to John Sings I received 2 EPCS Newsletter articles by Trevor Denning about this deck too. And of course Dudley had made his own notes about each deck, but it seems that he had followed Trevor Denning's categorization in different types, from A to D.
The first EPCS article by Denning dates from May 1984. The second article is from May 1992 and is more elaborate than the first, as new editions had been found since 1984. Based on them Trevor Denning came to distinguish 5 different editions and 4 types. This confirmed that the Deck of the Month here is a type A and from the second edition. The following table of the different editions is based on Denning's description "for quick means of identifying". I've added the used printing techniques and the Type B, C and D decks can be seen by clicking the letter there.

Edition   Date Type
1 Printed in chromolithography (11 colours), giant central suit on the pips, numbers 2 - 10 written in full in the corner. 1892 - c1893 A
2 As above, but with conventional arrangement of the pips, no numbers. Both type A decks contain gold in the printing. c1893 - c1897 A
3 Printed in crude offset, cloud backgrounds on the aces of hearts, clubs and spades, with 4 flags on each. Colours restricted to 3 and muddy, no gold. c1898 B
4 Printed in photoengraved lithography, designs changed and flags reduced to two on each ace. King, Queen, Jack and Ace are still written in full. c1899 - 1901 C
5 Printed in photoengraved lithography, but instead of king, queen etc with conventional indices and numbers throughout the deck.* c1902 - 1905 D
  * c1902 with small indices and numbers of 3 mm. Later larger: 7 mm.    

Three additional remarks:
Trevor Denning illustrated his 1992 article with some cards from different editions. He also showed the joker, but didn't mention anywhere when it entered these decks. As I've only found the joker in type D decks, it's safe to assume that this was around 1902.
Both Trevor Denning and the WOPC site describe in detail the 4 different suit colours, used in the type A decks, but neither uses the term no-revoke for this deck, which is the applicable term.
An article can only describe situations or items up to the moment it's written. Afterwards those may change. Apparently Dudley Ollis came across some different versions of the type D deck after 1992, which are in fact a 6th and 7th edition. You'll find them under D in the table.

As said, the deck was created by William Kimberley, who was one of the sons of the David Kimberley & Sons company, maker of carpenters' planes in Birmingham since around 1880. William applied for the patent, nr. 2388, on February 8, 1892. Production of the first edition probably started not long after, possibly mid 1892. On the box David Kimberley & Sons are formally mentioned as publisher. 
From the different styles and printing qualities of all the editions Denning concludes that there must have been different printers too and there's something to be said for that point. He mentions James Patrick, a printer from Holloway Head who married William's cousin Emily. Together with others James Patrick combined with William to form the Kimberley Press Ltd. in 1898. The company went out of business in 1906, but is almost certainly responsible for the editions 4 and 5, introducing the completely redesigned type C and D decks. The printers of the type A and B remain unknown.
However, a definite timeframe has been set. No decks from before 1892, date of the patent, or later than 1906, end of the Kimberley Press Ltd.

Of the courts only the kings and queens represent historical figures. They are not all contemporary, so not a help to date the deck (see bottom of the page). The jacks in the type A decks represent sailors from the navy of that suit's country. This changed in the Type C (and D) edition, when the courts were completely redesigned.

Well, after this long intro, finally........ the cards.

(Louis) Napoleon III            Eugenie Marie de Guzman, wife of Napoleon III

 

George Washington          Martha Washington

 

Usually the ace of spades is the main ace in English packs, but Kimberley made the ace of diamonds, the British suit, the most elaborately decorated ace.
The ace of hearts has a background, which looks like a back design for a deck and so does the ace of spades. 
For some reason the German ace has a foggy background, making the complete set a bit of a mixed lot.

 

Emperor William I Empress consort, princes Augusta

 

Albert, Prince consort.             Queen Victoria

 

Our deck consists of 52 cards and came without the original box. The "no revoke", illustrated by 4 pip cards.

Thanks to the WOPC site: pip cards from the first edition. Probably players for some reason didn't like them, so they were possibly soon replaced by the conventional pip cards. Hence the rarity of the first edition decks.

 

One last remark about the dating. The above table is the best tool to date the different types and editions of this deck. I agree with Trevor Denning that, when decks have been produced in different versions over years or decades, they are often dated by the first edition. However, in this case you'll often find the year 1897 as date in reference books. Here's an example from the Fournier catalogue vol. I:

Denning blames Catherine Hargrave for this and having read her description, I can agree with him. In her "A History of Playing Cards", which was originally published in 1930, she doesn't give that date directly, but she relates the deck with Goodall's Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee deck from 1897 by describing it as a "much more modest and less elaborate pack for the same purpose". But as she doesn't show any card from her deck, we'll never know which version she had to compare. The Fournier Museum shows a picture of the queen of clubs from the Type A deck. Not mentioned in the text are the remarkable pip cards, so the museum probably has the same edition as I show here. And when you've read the intro above, you'll probably see some other flaws in the description too.

 

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