Today, I am presenting three decks of unknown manufacture which, obviously, poses the question "Who issued these decks and why were the manufacturer's names omitted on the Aces of Spades and elsewhere? Unfortunately, a possible answer to this question might be found on the original boxes, or wrappers, that once housed these decks but each of the three decks described below lacks this important component.
The first deck is the earliest, circa 1855 and, by all accounts, would appear to have been made by either Huestis & Levy or their Union Card Manufactory as the Ace of Spades (1st photo) is identical to both Hochman NY19 and Hochman NY20 as it has the same Grand Street address at the base of the card but the central ribbon is blank. The single-headed courts are the same designs which are unique to this maker and the back design is a commonly found plaid pattern.
The second deck, circa 1890, has the same Ace of Spades (2nd photo) as the one shown for the Hochman L82 listing but a different joker, in this case, the well-known image of a black man sitting on a bale of hay strumming a banjo which is the same as the one shown for the Hochman L53 Steamboats listing but without either maker or brand identification. It has gold edges and a commonly seen green pattern back. Was this deck made by The American Playing Card Co. of Kalamazoo, MI or the Columbia Playing Card Co. of NY or someone else?
The third deck, circa 1900 (maybe earlier?), would appear to be some kind of hybrid as it has an Ace of Spades (3rd photo) that has the same central design as the ones shown for the Hochman PU2 and PU4 listings but without any maker's or city identification, therefore, one might think that this was made by Perfection PCC. The only problem with this assumption is that the back design is a well-known Sphinx-like design found in a couple of NYCC brands, one of which dates back to some 25 years earlier as it comes with the Hochman NY47 Ace of Spades. The courts are not in the NYCC style, though, so there are enough contradictions so that I cannot even guess as to who actually made this deck.
Ordinarily, one might think that the manufacturer's names were deliberately omitted because these were cheating decks with marked backs but, if they were, the designs are too clever for me to spot where the suit and rank delineations are located. Once, again, we seem to be presented with mystery decks that, although interesting by themselves, only serve to raise yet more questions in the mind of the collector.
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