French hand colored cards c.1850

[Watson7]

I have been asked to post more cards from the mid-nineteenth century French hand colored costume decks. I am pleased to oblige and grateful for the request because I am in a bit of a quandary as to whether I should post scans in any particular order. I don't suppose that it makes any real difference but I will attempt to provide scans of cards from "across the board' so to speak. That away, I hope to satisfy as many areas of interest as I can. I have already posted an early American deck, Norwood 85, and now a second French Costume deck. I hope to follow with some thing from the European arena and eventually some good repo decks but based what I have so far seen here in the Forum, I think that early American decks will be taking priority. I am informed that only a very small percentage of the Forum membership are also members of the 52 Plus Joker club. I am hopeful that my postings along with posting by others will persuade many to join the 52 Plus Joker club. It holds yearly conventions, yearly auctions, publishes an informative quarterly news letter and all for a very nominal membership fee.
The suit symbols in this particular deck are rendered in two types of gold. Hearts and Diamonds are done with pink gold, Spades and Clubs with yellow gold. The deck is known by two names, Cartes Parisienne and Jeu De Historique and was made by O. Gibert, Paris. The deck is referenced in the Carey catalog under France #336 and also in the Fournier catalog under France, #212.         
 

[Don Boyer]

Even in the scan, the subtle difference in the shades of gold is noticeable.  Very beautiful deck.  What does the card back look like?  If you have the box it came in, show that as well!  The typical collector on this forum loves all aspects of playing card design.  We even have some who are more interested in the box itself than the contents within!  To me, that's like buying rare works of gorgeous art and displaying them while they're still in the crate, but to each his own.

Don't be afraid to show more foreign-made decks - we have an international membership here, particularly among Asians/Pacific Islanders and Western Europeans (British in particular, but other countries are there as well).

Some of our collectors are dyed-in-the-wool about collecting only North American decks, some only go as broad as USPC, and some specialize even further, collecting Bicycle-branded decks almost exclusively.  Regardless, however, even these hardcore specialist collectors can appreciate a work of beauty such as this - and you never know; you could be giving them the impetus to expand their collection into regions previously unknown to them.

I'm not familiar with either the Carey or the Fournier catalogs - could you elaborate on them a little bit?  It sounds like they're overseas versions of Hochman's Encyclopedia based on the context you placed them in.

[52plusjoker]

I'm not familiar with either the Carey or the Fournier catalogs - could you elaborate on them a little bit?  It sounds like they're overseas versions of Hochman's Encyclopedia based on the context you placed them in.

Fournier is a catalogue of the collection amassed by the Fournier PC maker. When the company was sold to USPC the museum containing the collection was transferred to a trust run by the province. More info here.
http://www.leeasher.com/playing_cards/collectors/museums/fournier.html

Cary Collection is housed at the Beinicke Library in Yale Univ. Collected in the 1920's and 1930's by Melvin B. Cary. see this website
http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/research/library-catalogs-databases/guide-cary-collection-playing-cards

[Watson7]

The Carey catalog is comprised of four volumes, two of which contain black and white pictures of cards sorted by country. The other two volumes contain text relating to the cards. That arrangement makes reading somewhat cumbersome but the catalog is certainly a good place to find and identify many decks. The Fournier catalog is a one volume work. It contains many entries and pictures of cards which are also sorted by country and are colored. Not as knowledgeable as Carey but much easier to read. 

The backs of the French costume cards appear to come in just three versions: plain white, plain blue or plain pink. No design whatsoever. I seem to recall from somewhere that at one time, plain backs were considered best to deter the practice of marking a deck. However and inevitably, normal usage results in unintended marks of some sort which could tip off the identity of the card.  I have never found any of these decks in the original box.   

[52plusjoker]

Here's two boxes for costume decks. The first is only the bottom of the slipcase. The second is in great condition. Have a couple more I'll dig out and display later.

[Don Boyer]

The backs of the French costume cards appear to come in just three versions: plain white, plain blue or plain pink. No design whatsoever. I seem to recall from somewhere that at one time, plain backs were considered best to deter the practice of marking a deck. However and inevitably, normal usage results in unintended marks of some sort which could tip off the identity of the card.  I have never found any of these decks in the original box.   

Reminds me of another deck on the market right now: the NOC deck, by House of Playing Cards and The Blue Crown.  The current edition of the NOC (pronounced "nock") deck, version 2, has the same solid-color back with a white border as its predecessor, but is actually marked to indicate card suit.  These days USPC actually tries to dissuade customers from designing decks with large fields of solid color - they're concerned that a single ink bubble can ruin a card's back and that ink bubbles aren't completely avoidable.

[jwats01]

Maybe it's just my beginner's eyes and lack of knowledge, but why did the older cards seemingly use so much more color in the courts than modern day cards? I like it.

[Don Boyer]

Maybe it's just my beginner's eyes and lack of knowledge, but why did the older cards seemingly use so much more color in the courts than modern day cards? I like it.

In this particular case, it has to do with the fact that the colors aren't inked - they're PAINTED, by an artist, by hand!  Not the kind of production USPC can easily set up on their assembly line!

The only thing that stops someone from making gorgeous decks today with all kinds of colors in them is the sheer cost.  Most decks are made using a process of selecting color values for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black (CMYK) as those are the four inks typically used in a garden variety deck (as opposed to one with extra inks, custom inks, etc.).  Varying the percentages of each ink used on any particular spot on the card changes the end-result color that appears there.  There are some older decks that used three times as many colors, allowing for a much richer variety of colors - they're absolutely gorgeous, but by today's standards they're prohibitively expensive to make.

[52plusjoker]

Here's two boxes for costume decks. The first is only the bottom of the slipcase. The second is in great condition. Have a couple more I'll dig out and display later.

A few more. Here's a costume deck with a patterned back - unusual as Watson7 pointed out they are normally plain in one color

Also two more boxes - the first picture shows the fronts; the second the backs. Interesting on the back of the star pattern box there is a US 1 Pack tax stamp date 4/15/61 and hand-cancelled by the Chicago Playing Card Collectors Club. They must have sold it to a member, perhaps by auction or a list, and being conscientious paid the 13c tax!!

[CARTORAMA]

We at CARTORAMA use to review mostly – but by far not only – ancient decks from time to time. Here is our text to the featured Cartes Parisiennes:

Cartes Parisiennes

Lovers, who caused a furor, adorn the luxurious deck „Cartes Parisiennes". It is particularly nobly fitted with gilt edges in red gold (hearts and diamonds) and yellow gold (spades and clubs). The same deck also exists in a plain version. This deluxe model here dates from 1853.
It had been commissioned by the short-lived fashion magazine „Le Caméléon“ with the cardmaker Gibert in Paris. The figures show 4 French couples: the Comte de Brissac and Diane de Poitiers, the Comtesse de Rochefort and the Chevalier d'Éon, Marion Delorme and Cinq-Mars as well as Bussy d'Amboise and the Lady of Montsoreau. These last two couples yielded enough material for novels from the feathers of the French writers Alfred de Vigny, Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas. The latter's depiction of life at the time of French King Henri III was published in 1846 under the simple title of „La Dame de Monsoreau“.
The cloak-and-dagger opus even made it on to television, 120 years later. Yet in the pack of cards the lovers evidently just play the roles of models. The hand-colored steel engravings do not show authentic fashion from the time of the protagonists, rather exquisite robes of more recent times. Which indeed are so rich in detail, so lushly illustrated that you can literally hear the satin rustling. The portrays of the pairs also remain strikingly close to handed down representations. Laid down side by side, the backgrounds of Jack, Queen and King join to a consistent scenery, outlined in shades of grey.
Noteworthy is the narrow margin of the cards. This is – connoisseurs will know – due to the gilding of the edges. For this purpose, the pack needs to be grinded and sanded in order to let the gold foil stick better to the paper.

[52plusjoker]

Hello Cartorama
Thanks for all the information and we are very pleased to see you participating in the Forum.