Februari 20

Back on schedule for today's lockdown deck. This time the "Cartes Imperiales No. 40", printed by Brepols & Dierckx Zoon from Turnhout, Belgium, and published around 1900. Maybe influenced by the Daveluy decks, the courts in this deck are set against a background scene too, although here uncoloured. The deck comes with a set of scenic aces with views of Paris, with two support colours (pink and yellow) on each ace.

The deck is documented in "Turnhoutse Speelkaarten, published by the National Playing Card Museum in Turnhout in 1983. The pattern of the Cartes Impériales dates from around 1875 by Brepols & Dierckx Zoon, but the pattern has been published by other manufacturers from Turnhout in the last quarter of the 19th century, like Biermans and Mesmaekers Frères. In all these editions there was no background illustration on the courts. In the book today's lockdown deck is dated exactly as February 8, 1904, but the description is about a 33 cards deck (6H added) for Kikkers in the Netherlands. That edition had gilded corners. Our deck consists of 52 cards without gilded corners. It's possible that the entry in the book was taken from the company's order-book and that this version of the pattern was already published a few years earlier. Our deck has the same set of aces with views of Paris and backs as the described 1904 deck.