Another personal favorite.. Beautiful French Historic deck with non-standard courts and wonderfully decorated pips c1860-65 by Melle Hautot, Paris ( I have seen this attributed to another maker in the past) if anybody can set the record straight, your input is more than welcome.
Here is the exact description with quotes:
Mlle (Mademoiselle = Miss) Hautot, Paris; Imp. (Imprimerie = Printery) Wiesener & Cie, 12, rue Delaborde, Paris. Cartes Historiques (Historical Cards). Design: Mme (Madame = Mrs) Paris (Esther Paris-Persennet ?) 32, complete. Chromolith., 99x63 mm, square corners, no index mark. Backs: Plain pink. 1863.
Lit.: Merlin p. 116; Cary coll. 348; Hoffmann [1972] p. 35 & ill. 54b; Hoffmann/Dietrich [Geschichte] p. 31 & ill. 16.
Luxurious and elegant cards, enhanced with much gold, displaying figures in historical costumes. They are named after the Portrait Officiel. The suit-signs have been modified: spades are spearheads, the color of the clubs is gilt, hearts and diamonds have been reduced to their golden frame lines. These 3 suit-signs are adorned with flowers, birds and fruits respectively (as to clubs then on gilt background), also on the pips, in again and again changing arrangements. The box shows Jacquemin Gringonneur, it also mentions that the deck is „B.S.G.D.G.“ (breveté sans garantie du gouvernement = patented without guarantee of the government). Such information, combined with the ones supplied by Merlin and Depaulis in „Cartiers Parisiens“ p. 28, allows us to identify the pack at long last. The booklet carries the name of its printer Wiesener. It also gives the interesting list of the „DÉPOTS A PARIS“, i.e. the stores where the cards were available:
Maurin, rue des Fossés-Saint-Victor, 24.
Grimaud (here with “coins arrondis“, i.e. rounded corners, a process newly patented by Grimaud), rue de Bondy, 70.
Avril et Cie, rue de la Banque, 20.
Susse Frères, place de la Bourse, 31.
Alph. Giroux, boulevard des Capucines, 43.
Martinet, boulevard des Capucines, 12 (Grand Hôtel).
Esther Paris-Persennet was a Paris portrayer in pastels and a copist, active 1845/68 (Thieme-Becker XXVI p. 236). She is – in Thieme-Becker – the only fitting female artist.
Minimally damaged original slipcase, booklet (16 pages, printed on one side only)
