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The "Rhenania" deck was printed and published since 1911 by NSF and later SN. In 1913 it was still in the sales books, but it didn't stay in production for long. On the aces are scenic views of places along the river Rhine. Hence the name.
The
court cards from the "Rhenania" deck show a distinct
resemblance to the "Cartes Impériales", made by Belgian
manufacturers like Van Genechten and Brepols & Dierckx. |
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A similarly
designed deck was later published without the scenic backgrounds on the
courts. This deck was
printed in chromolithography since 1925 and published as "Wereld"
(World). There are versions with 33 and 52 cards. After 1935 it is no
longer in the SN pricelists. The decks came in a wrapper. |
 
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Maybe
because of all these delays and the extra costs, maybe because of competition
from other countries: a petition in bankruptcy was filed and adjudged in May
1912. One of the curators was the director of the "N.V. P.C.J. Faddegon
& Co.", a firm that exploits a lithographic and book printing office,
as well as a cardboard factory. This company was located on the Haarlemmer
Houttuinen, quite near to the factory on Prinseneiland. As Faddegon had great
experience in lithography and cardboard making, a take-over of the "NV
Nederlandsche Speelkaartenfabriek" was a logical step. The factories were
located close to each other, so an efficient company management was possible and
the production of playing cards formed a good extension to the line of the
Faddegon products.
In
August 1912 the clients were informed of the take-over and the new name of the
company: officially the "Speelkaartenfabriek Nederland van de NV Steen- en
Boekdrukkerij & Cartonnagefabriek v/h Faddegon & Co." In short:
"Speelkaartenfabriek Nederland" (in this article referred to as SN).
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The Hollandia deck was printed and published by SN around 1913. This souvenir deck with costumed courts and scenic aces shows the quality of chromolithographic printing that the company could produce. |
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The
aces show scenes from 8 different Dutch cities. On the Ace of Hearts the
Peace Palace (Vredespaleis) in The Hague is depicted. It
was drawn after the original design of Belgian architect L.M. Cordonnier
from 1906. The building of the Peace Palace started in 1907 and in 1913
the palace was officially opened. In the original plans the building would
be enriched with 2 big towers and 2 smaller ones, but Mr. Carnegie, the
American beneficiary who funded the construction, wanted to cut down the
costs and in a late stage the final plans were changed to 1 big tower and
1 smaller one. However, on this ace the building clearly has 2 big towers,
so the design must have been drawn before the construction had ended,
based on the original plans. Too
bad that the aces were already drawn and published. |
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Printed in chromolithography and published as "Hollandia" in 1928. The courts have unusual indices: a crown for the Kings, a fan for the Queens and a wooden shoe for the Jacks. Also the "1" on the aces is uncommon here. Not all the depicted costumes (towns) are the same as on the courts in the first Hollandia deck. Although redrawn and used in different suits, all the basic designs of the first deck have returned on the aces of the second edition, except for the scene from Rotterdam. For some reason this was replaced by a scene with windmills in the Zaan region. And, upside down on the Ace of Spades, the design of the Peace Palace was corrected and shows only one big tower. |
In World War I the Netherlands had remained neutral. Business was good in those years for the SN company: their competitors in Germany had to cut back on their export and in Belgium production nearly came to a halt, thus it was easy to win back the Dutch market. The company invested their profits in new storage and production facilities. At the end of 1918 the company of Faddegon had 6 rapid lithography presses, 10 hand presses and a big drying machine that could handle 6000 sheets of playing cards per day.
