I wanted to share with the perusers of this website a sampling of decks that celebrate and commemorate certain well-known New York City landmarks. These are not the later common decks from the mid-20th century that were made to be sold at tourist shops around the city nor are they the known souvenir decks that are currently listed in the Dawson/Hochman encyclopedia which, of course, do not pertain to any one particular landmark despite the Statue of Liberty appearing on the backs of three of these. The decks in question have standard faces but beautiful artwork as their back designs which, together with their dates of issue, is what makes them desirable, especially to those collectors who happen to reside in the city.
The first, and earliest, as well as the only wide example that I have, is a deck of Triton No. 42 Extra cards (Hochman NY51a) made by NYCC which features a wonderful depiction of the newly completed Flatiron Building (1st photo) which was originally called the Fuller Building. The building opened on October 1, 1902 and, if I am interpreting the indistinct date from my partial tax stamp, this deck was issued the very next year. It is interesting to see the detailed background of the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Broadway as it was at that time. This back design is quite rare as I have only ever seen two of these decks, one in my own collection and the other was part of the late Joe Friedman's collection.
Continuing in chronological order, we have a bridge size deck that was issued shortly after completion of the Chrysler Building which opened on May 27, 1930 and was sold at the Observation Tower. This back design shows an image of the iconic building in either green or yellow with silver highlights set against what appear to me to be lightning-like "marble" panels (2nd photo - front & back of OB shown) all combining to create a memorable impression in the mind of the collector. These are Remembrance playing cards issued by Brown & Bigelow of St. Paul, MN and are listed as Hochman MSN14.
The next two decks were issued shortly after the Empire State Building officially opened on May 1, 1931.
The first example was literally issued shortly after, as evidenced by the "P1987" code appearing on the unique Ace of Spades which represents the year 1931. There is no manufacturer's identification appearing either on the original box or any of the 53 cards although it may have been made by USPC. The back design is an absolutely striking Art Deco image of the Empire State Building (3rd photo) which came in both blue and red. This deck was available in single deck side slip cases similar to those housing many of the narrow Congress decks of the 1920's as well as a double deck vertical slip case. The distinctly non-standard Ace of Spades and joker from this deck are shown in the 4th photo.
The second Empire State Building deck was issued either in late 1932 or early 1933 as it contains a Contract Bridge score card dated November 1, 1932. Despite this later date, the original tuck box has a small 10-cent tax stamp affixed with a W.P.L. precancel indicating that is was made by Western P&L Co. of Racine, WI. This back design features another glorious image of the building against a black backdrop of rocks and rays (5th photo).
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