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These
two decks were made by Brepols
from Turnhout. The first dates from the 1940's and has a Belgian-Genoese
pattern, which is usually made for the French or Walloon market. Here the courts have Dutch indices and Dutch scenic
aces, so it was obviously made for the Dutch market. |
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This deck was made by Van Genechten from Turnhout and published in the Netherlands in the early 1960's. It's an advertising deck for Amstel beer and has the first and only set of photographic scenic aces. It didn't appeal to the general taste of the Dutch. There are buildings from different major cities. On the Ace of Clubs is the Central Station in Rotterdam, which opened in 1957. It was very modern at that time and represented the finishing touch of the post-war rebuilding of the city center, which had been bombed by the Germans in May 1940. |
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There have been many other decks with photographic or drawn scenic aces, but those decks were published for advertising purposes and the aces usually show buildings, products or activities of the company, that advertises itself on the backs and box. Although some come close, they are not within the scope of this article.
The first deck here below was made by La Turnhoutoise from Turnhout, Belgium, in the 1950's. This company was taken over by the N.V. Fabrieken Brepols from Turnhout in 1960. The N.V. Fabrieken Brepols was one of the three companies, that decided to join their playing card divisions and formed Carta Mundi in 1970. The other two companies were N.V. Etablissementen A. Van Genechten and N.V. Léonard Biermans.
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The Dutch pattern chosen by Carta Mundi is, in design and color scheme of the courts, almost an exact copy of that of La Turnhoutoise, just like the set of accompanying aces. The Dutch pattern by La Turnhoutoise is shown here above on the left; the present pattern by Carta Mundi is on the right for comparison. The b/w aces are by La Turnhoutoise and the aces here below accompany 99% of CM's Dutch patterned decks. |
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At the same time a mistake was set straight: Mulderslot was corrected to Muiderslot and the "French" numbers on the aces were changed into A's. |
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This deck probably dates from the later 1980's. Published as Nr. 201 (Canasta/Bridge), the familiar Dutch pattern was accompanied by a set of Dutch scenic aces, that hadn't been used before. It's a rather special set of aces, as they are -as far as we can tell- the only designs that originally belonged to the Speelkaartenfabriek Nederland and now used by Carta Mundi. Not long after Van Genechten had taken over SN in March 1970, Carta Mundi was founded. They are still the rightful owners of all the SN designs, but have never really used any of them, except for this set of aces. |
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To
compare: |
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(for these two complete sets of aces, see page SN 13-15) |
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As
we've shown you, the Dutch people have inadvertently become accustomed to this
Belgian "Dutch" pattern since the 1920's. Although other patterns
too have been introduced here since then, during the following decades the
Dutch pattern was produced by almost every Belgian card manufacturer for
export to the Netherlands. It therefore shouldn't be a surprise that after the
demise of our indigenous card production in 1969 the Dutch have -without any
problem- "adopted" this pattern and the fact that it was accompanied
by scenic aces. Our Belgian neighbors had already dealt us these cards for
more than half a century. Although the Belgian manufacturers have held the
largest part of the Dutch market for many decades, their decks were usually
aimed at the general public and made in larger quantities. However,
decks have also been imported from other neighboring countries and those decks
were mostly of a higher quality than the Belgian decks.
