Bicycle old fan deck, Is it legit?

[pendulum]

Hello everyone.

I had bought this deck from a local antique store about 7 years ago and had forgotten about it in a drawer. I found it today and took the time to look up more information about it and realized these supposedly are the first edition of the bicycle deck. I could not find many other examples online of this deck to compare it closely to. I have all 52 cards, but no jokers. Here are a few photos. Any information and ideas would be appreciated. You can't see it in the photos, but the sides of the cards do have a gold tint that is more noticeable when they are all stacked up.

[Don Boyer]

I don't know about first edition, but it's OLD.  You might be able to clean up those edges, with some very careful wiping and a soft cloth, like a microfiber cloth - I did similar with a pack of Classic Twins from Expert and they came surprisingly clean.  Not perfect, mind you, but far better looking and they even handled better.

I could be mistaken here, but it looks like a deck that predates the letter dating system - and is certainly an early deck, based on the Ace of Spades mentioning Russell & Morgan.  Tom Dawson would know that far better than I do and can probably better pinpoint the approximate year of manufacture.

[52plusjoker]

I don't know about first edition, but it's OLD.  You might be able to clean up those edges, with some very careful wiping and a soft cloth, like a microfiber cloth - I did similar with a pack of Classic Twins from Expert and they came surprisingly clean.  Not perfect, mind you, but far better looking and they even handled better.

I could be mistaken here, but it looks like a deck that predates the letter dating system - and is certainly an early deck, based on the Ace of Spades mentioning Russell & Morgan.  Tom Dawson would know that far better than I do and can probably better pinpoint the approximate year of manufacture.

Definitely original from 1885 -89 period. It is the first Ace although originally listed as US8a by Gene Hochman. Good thing you opened the drawer!

[Pip Nosher]

Yes, I concur with Tom: the earliest Bicycle issue, and definitely original. Your deck would actually have been issued in the "Extra" "Gilt Edged" box pictured below (and on the "US8" page of my website) because the deck has gold edges. Here's the joker, too.

For more information on your cards and other vintage Bicycle cards, please visit my website: www.bicyclecards.org (redirects to cypressfilms.com/bicycle). Click on "US8a" at the bottom of the page.