A. Ball & Bro

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My Faro deck made by A. Ball & Bro., Chicago, IL.  The company founder was Annie Ball who was listed as a playing card maker in various old city directories and censuses between 1890 and 1910. They distributed all kinds of gambling equipment but are most known for their Faro equipment. One of the rare women, or perhaps the only one in that era, in the gambling supply business.  The cards courts match the Samuel Hart courts and I assume were made by them.

My personal collection includes an almost complete Faro setup by Ball: a brass dealing box, a wooden card press that also acts as a case for the dealing box, these Faro cards, and a Faro case keeper (looks like a big rosewood abacus with images of cards on it).

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Here is an interesting A. Ball & Bro. companion piece.
This is a Bicycle playing card (standard blue Rider back) that reflects an amusing early 20th century sense of humor.

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It's a very pretty design. Court cards look similar to the design of Samuel Hart made in Philadelphia in mid XIX century.

On my card beauty scaling this would be rare beauty .

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Here is a story I just did on Annie
https://fpopc.weebly.com/a-ball--brother.html

[dcbrown]

Great article! Annie was more of a pioneer than I realized.

Although I've gathered a lot of information on the Chicago gambling supply companies of the early 20th century, a detailed look at Annie Ball and other makers of the 19th century has been neglected.

Thanks for sharing!