Chapter 7 - The United State Playing Card Company

[Chuqii]

Chapter 7 - The United State Playing Card Company

[NCC1888]

CONGRESS 606 CARDS
For list of all known pre-1931 Congress 606 cards (over 350) and pictures of card backs (over 500) please visit our website at https://congresscardbacks.weebly.com/     It is a work in progress.

[NCC1888]

The Schmidlapp Congress Deck
Information from Toby Edwards
The card you show with the children is from a special edition Congress deck made for a Mr. Jacob Godfrey Schmidlapp who was a prominent citizen of Cincinnati, apparently as a Christmas gift for 1917 based upon the photo of the box shown below. The children shown may have been his grandchildren. Mr. Schmidlapp was a classic American rags to riches success story having established a distillery in 1874 and, later on in 1890, he organized The Union Savings Bank and Trust Company, both of Cincinnati. I do not know if this was the first of the series of such special Congress decks made for Mr. Schmidlapp by USPC. I do know that there was a deck issued for 1918 but I do not have any examples. Given that Mr. Schmidlapp passed away just before Christmas, 1919, it is likely that this brief special series of Congress decks ended then.

[Chuqii]

US35 - Auction Bridge #708 c1920-1926 - Adding joker and extra cards in two different back designs

[Chuqii]

US34 Jumbo Index #88 - this variant is not listed and I believe was short-lived - #88 Jumbo Poker c1927 - this is the only joker I have, but I suspect there may be another

[Don Boyer]

US 34 Jumbo Index #88 - this variant is not listed and I believe was short-lived - #88 Jumbo Poker - this is the only joker I have, but I suspect there may be another

I do know that these days, the model number 88 is still in use for Bicycle decks with jumbo indices.  I think they're really only available in Rider Backs these days - never seen them in anything else.  This Jumbo Index deck probably evolved into that deck, or perhaps Hochman's only listed it as a Bicycle deck, despite the lack of a Bicycle name on this particular example.

[Chuqii]

US42 - Union Castle Line - Hochman does not include the Joker

[Chuqii]

US60 - Scout #108 c1910

[Chuqii]

Steve Bowling passed this info along to me the other day, so I thought I would post it here.  There are two versions of the US8c Ace, one that says Trade Mark around the base of the spade (1905-1915), and one that does not (1916-1926).  Steve gave me the years of issue, so I am posting examples with date ranges here.  Thanks, Steve.

[Chuqii]

Another US34 variant - 88 Bridge Jumbo Indexes - 1908 from tax stamp

[Chuqii]

This is a non-Hochman listed USPCC ace, though the "MADE IN U.S.A." looks identical to the Standard PCC aces, so maybe it came with the company.  You can find other examples at http://a.trionfi.eu/WWPCM/decks08/d06454/d06454.htm

[Chuqii]

US32a - Pennant #253 - narrow sized - Sorry, no joker yet, but here's the Ace and card back

[Chuqii]

c1920s - Here is a slight variant on US2e Sportsman's #202, with "Made in U.S.A." added to the Ace of Spades.  I don't know which version came first. 

[Chuqii]

US17, German Faces - Gaigel - just wanted to clear up that the deck does not have 2 cards each of Ace - 9 as stated in Hochman.  Gaigel is played with A - 10 and 7s, and that is what this deck has.  I would guess that an American faces deck would be Ace - 9, though.  Just not the German faces.  Suits are Leaves, Acorns, Hearts and Bells.

[Chuqii]

This Ace is mentioned but not shown in Hochman - US2b without Russell & Morgan Factories, Sportsman's No 202, Inlaid back design.  The way the "K" date code is written I would have guessed 1928, but I doubt this Ace was used for that long so that would make it 1907.  Not sure when this box design was used, but that would help with the dating.

Update:  But now I remember that Air Cushion wasn't a thing pre-1909, so I'm back to thinking these are 1928, but the Ace design is still puzzling.

[Chuqii]

1889 Article from The British Printer discussing history of Russel & Morgan Printing Co.

[Chuqii]

c1936 Walgreens Stud Playing Cards - made by USPCC - Note the lack of "With Two Jokers" and "Reg. U.S. Pat. Off." on the front of the tuck box.  I think only this first version lacked each of these.

[Chuqii]

US6i in Hochman states the first narrow non RMP Ace of Spades was introduced around 1921.  That should be 1927 and not 1921.