April 1

Wait another year and this deck will be officially antique. Today's deck dates from 1922 and was made by Van Genechten from Turnhout, Belgium, to be published as Dilkhus by the Kamala Soap Factory in India. I've seen a complete deck, even thought that we had one, but my recollection must have been wrong, because all I found in the sheet were these 14 cards. The file card said that we had bought our first set in 2001. Van Genechten had made sample packages of 14 cards: the 12 courts with the ace of spades and the joker, some with different back designs. Apparently not all of the sample packages were send to India and every once in a while a few of them turn up. If possible we always bought them. Miriam has sometimes exchanged cards to get as many different backs as possible in our own set. That wasn't a problem, because the cards are always in mint condition. It's likely that a blue version of the Indian lady back exists and also a red version of the swastika back with white border.

It turns out my recollection was good: I found the complete deck in the original box in one of the showcases in my work space, just by chance, while I was looking for something completely different. I've added scans of the box and the red version of the Indian lady, that the deck has as backs, at the bottom.