Hochman SU13 Austen Beauties Playing Card Back Designs

[tobyedwards]

Today, I thought I would share photos of four of the back designs I have in my collection made for the J. I. Austen Company c.1895 by the Standard Playing Card Company, both located in Chicago.
This pertains to the SU13 listing in the Hochman encyclopedia which references a corresponding brand number of 506 whereas my decks are housed in what I believe to be the correct original boxes showing the brand number for this particular Gold Border style to be 503 as shown in the first photo. Oddly, I also have an example of the deck shown in the encyclopedia under the SU13a listing but that box has the brand number 501 instead of the 506 cited and these borders and designs differ from the ones I am presenting today..
The second photo shows the Ace of Spades, one of the beautiful back designs with it's specified gold border and what I consider to be one of the best looking jokers ever designed.
The third photo shows an additional three back designs for this particular brand, one of which is also shown under the SU13 listing in the encyclopedia.
As I have encouraged other viewers of this website to do previously, I would welcome the opportunity to see other back designs for this brand which fit this specific gold border variety.

[torcams]

Hi Toby,

I must admit I always read the "gold borders" as meaning gold edges, however now I see that is not what was being described.   I have the girl standing at the beach, but she is in a No. 504 box.  Is it possible the numbers correspond to the different backs?

[Don Boyer]

Hi Toby,

I must admit I always read the "gold borders" as meaning gold edges, however now I see that is not what was being described.   I have the girl standing at the beach, but she is in a No. 504 box.  Is it possible the numbers correspond to the different backs?

Actually, gold borders could be just that - gold borders.  Instead of a uniform band of white surrounding the back art, it would be printed into the bleed area with gold ink.  It was meant to look nearly as nice as a gilded deck but at a somewhat lower cost.  I can't say this for certain, but my bet would be that you're looking at a different model number on your box because it's for a different deck in the manufacturer's catalog - gold borders versus gold edges (a.k.a. gilding).

It's also not impossible that someone took that box and slipped a gilded deck into it - it happens a lot with older decks.  It's easy to understand, as well, that someone might confuse gold borders and gold edges, thus slipping a gilded deck into a box for gold-bordered cards.

When decks are this old, it's pretty common to find that the box fell apart long ago and no decent fragment of it remained with the cards.  I was always astounded at how the cards themselves could outlast the thing meant to protect them from rough handling, wear, light and dust.  But if someone wanted to protect a deck and the original wrapper or box was destroyed or lost, they'll grab the next best thing - the box from another deck.