March 6

Today another deck that never made it to the DXPO site, because they were acquired before 2004. The deck was printed in fine chromolithography by C.L. Wüst and published in the Netherlands as "Wilhelmina Playing Cards. The first edition dates from 1890, but there was a second edition in 1898. The distinction between the 2 editions is found on the boxes. The box of the first edition shows Queen Wilhelmina as a young girl and on the box of the second edition she is pictured at a more mature age. Based on the box, our deck is from the second edition of 1898. The courts and aces are the same in both editions. The kings show Dutch kings, the queens show women in regional costumes, on spades from the Dutch East Indies (Java). On hearts the "Dutch Virgin", symbolizing the Netherlands, is depicted.
However, in 1905 these same courts and aces were published in the Netherlands as "National Playing cards", with the exception of the QS and the QH. They were replaced by women in Dutch regional costumes, as shown on the last scan.

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