A TALE TO TELL
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The US has always been a country that welcomed immigrants from all over the world. In the late 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century a lot of people from the Germanic countries found their way to the US and they brought along their customs, values, religion and......games. So it's not a surprise that American playing card manufacturers have produced special decks for those immigrants, so that they could play their familiar games with familiar looking cards. The USPCC has produced a Skat and a Gaigel deck and Andrew Dougherty from New York has produced the William Tell deck here below. It was published as "No 32 - Hungarian Cards" around 1910 (see Hochman AD39).
The text on the cards is not in English, but -probably especially done for the target group- in German. However, the Germanic players would have had to get accustomed to the different size of the cards. Where the original cards have a more oblong size, usually 60 x 100 mm or a comparable scale, the American manufacturer chose his regular "wide" size. The designs are very close to the original ones. In the previously shown Piatnik version (p.2) the designer was given room to make his own interpretation of the scenes and figures. Here the original pattern is copied very closely.
The names on the Obers and Unters in this deck are the same as those in the previous Piatnik deck.
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The name of the manufacturer is on the 7 of Bells. |
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