May 18

American souvenir decks, the older ones with their oval pictures and the later ones with the rectangular pictures. We have gathered several different ones over the years, but I like the odd ones. So for today's lockdown deck the O'Callaghan's Souvenir Playing Cards of the City of Chicago, published by John J. O'Callaghan in 1930 (S43 in Hochman). On each card the rectangular photo has been cut sideways in two opposite corners to reveal a card to indicate the value, but it's triplicate like as there's already a pip and index or number on each card too. Mr. O'Callaghan must have been proud of his publication, as he copyrights every single card as J.J. O'C and on the joker a typographic O'C was added in two corners.