March 13

Today's deck should have been shown on our site a long time ago, but never got there because it was added to the collection before 2004. So I'll sneak it in with the help of this lockdown series. The deck was printed in fine chromolithography by the Speelkaartenfabriek Nederland from Amsterdam and published as "Hollandia" since around 1913.  At first without a joker, but since around 1916 with this little farmer joker. The deck is known among collectors as "Hollandia - A", because in 1928 a second "Hollandia" deck was published. That's known here as "Hollandia - B" and has different designs.
The courts show people in local dress from different Dutch cities and towns. Aces with views of different Dutch cities and towns. Notable is that on the AH the Peace Palace in The Hague is depicted with 2 high towers. This was based on the original designs by the architect, but in the final plans only one high tower survived. Mr. Carnegie, who funded the construction, decided that one was enough.