****************
# 34
18th century creativity with playing cards.
No matter for how many years I have collected secondary used playing cards, and no matter how many I have seen and collected, the creativity in the reuse of playing cards never stops surprising me. Most secondary use is very simple. Practical solutions, like this one.
Back
in the 18th century somebody in France had to bundle documents. If these
documents were rolled or folded, they were usually stored in a bag. In many
occasions a single playing card was used as a label to record the content of
each bag. I have written about this before.
This
time the documents probably were on paper, unfolded. To separate and record the
piles three playing cards have been stitched together. The result is a long
sleeve that was folded over the pile of documents, and the set was stored in a
cupboard.
This way the documents were not bound together, so it was easy to
remove and to add deeds to the set.
As you
can see, the part that was visible on the front became dirty, while the parts
that were in between paper kept nicely clean.
The text on the
”spine” reads “deeds of which costs are not collectable”.
I have only one example of this secondary use. Never seen it elsewhere. Did you? Please let me know.
****************