December 29

Today's lockdown deck is Belgian and that's probably the only solid info I can give. The given title is Mediaeval and the given date is 1941, but both are not solid. I can understand the title as the courts show figures dressed in mediaeval outfits. They are accompanied by a set of embellished aces. Also note the "duplicate" pips on the courts and the embellished ones on the aces. If there's anyone with more information about this deck, please step forward. And on May 13, 2024, a post in one of the FB groups showed the title of the deck: simple "Whist" (see bottom of this page).

Rhonda Trichter Hawes:
I have it in my database as: Medival, Leonard Biermans, c1941. I list references as Fournier BEL75 and Segeth Lot 98.

Joop Muller:
Rhonda, I checked and Fournier doesn't mention a maker, just 1941. Segeth says "probably" Leonard Biermans and dates it as around 1940.
Luc Biebouw has listed the deck as maker unknown in his extensive book about Belgian playing cards, but mentions that Biermans is claimed by some. He mentions Segeth among others as reference. I guess that there's still no solid evidence for a maker.

Luc Biebouw:
at that time I scribe my book, there was no evidence in the museum at Turnhout as well for Biermans. Sorry.

Joop Muller:
I think that only Max Segeth brought the name Biermans forward in relation to this deck (see this page of his catalogue). Although he writes "vermutlich", his "probably" may have been lost later on. And he seems to like Biermans. By chance I noticed that he had also attributed Lot 97 (and 95 too) "probably" to Biermans, while since the 1980's the Miss Blanche deck is known to have been made by the Speelkaartenfabriek Nederland. See: sn-1939 (speelkaartenmuseum.nl)

On May 13 a Dutch collector, Hans van der Zalm, posted the deck in the "Pre-1950 Playing Cards - Scholars and Collectors" group on Facebook.
He also showed pictures of the box, which none of the other collectors in this group and other playing card groups had ever seen before.
 I'll share them here.

So the official title for this deck is not Mediaeval, but simply "Whist".

plaatsen: 29-12-04