- THE INTERNATIONAL PATTERN & ITS ANOMALIES -

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Spain is the next country. Here too local and regional patterns and games are used, so the major Spanish playing cards manufacturers, like H. Fournier or Comas, produce different nonstandard decks, but usually based on the Spanish or a regional pattern. The international pattern is known, but not used very often to play with, except for bridge or poker.

Still we found 3 decks that qualify for this xpo. The first was produced in Spain, but published in the USA. It's a reproduction of an old transformation deck from the US, called Vanity Fair. The courts have caricature faces and the attributes have been replaced. Only the King of Hearts has a real sword, suiting a suicide king, but- and what a foreseeing artist- also smokes a cigarette!
The red suits seem to be the ones that are having fun, they smoke and drink and smile. The black suits are the opposite. The Spades look like a strict family. The son out to work on the field, the mother all day in the kitchen and dad holds supervision with his cane and his pipe set in a grim mouth. And the Clubs seem to have every reason not to look happy. They look as if they were born on the wrong side of the track and are either on their way to hospital or have just returned from it.

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