The original Goodall courts first issued in 1820 were blue wood-block prints, stencil coloured in red, pink, yellow blue and black and similar to those used by Hunt & sons
which is not surprising as Charles Goodall started his apprenticeship with that firm. It wasn't until around 1850 when Charles Goodall, founder of the firm retired, that new style
courts started to appear some with more naturalistic design. Initially printed by woodblocks the printing process moved over to letterpress and the colours red, yellow black where used.
This set was one of the last single or standing court figures to be printed with ornate design and the use of several colours. Three of the Jacks also have beards which is unusual in the standard English design. Goodall and Son appears on the belt of the JC. C. 1855
In 1851 Reynolds & Sons patented a new design for playing cards to improve their handling. The cards had a wavy or 'perforated' edge to them and a decorated back with simple design and smooth surface for easy shuffling. The courts are clean looking with a more modern and detailed design, note the hands in particular, which are more life like. Perhaps these may have been produced for the Great Exhibition, but I have no proof of this as yet, never the less they appear to have been short lived and by the scarcity clearly were not a success.
A simple but effective design with gold 'holly' design in gold on a plain green background. Smooth finish for improved shuffling. Reynolds & Sons were the first playing card company to introduce coloured back designs. (See below for the Coronation deck for William & Adelaide)
Perforated edges certainly improve handling and are very tactile but I imagine susceptible to easy damage during play and as such may make some cards easy to identify to the astute card sharp.
Charles Gibson took over from Christopher Blanchard, one of the early and successful playing card makers in 1769. By the mid 1770's Gibson had joined forces with Gisborne and playing cards with joint names appeared from c. 1774 through to c. 1790. The ace shown here was discovered in a pack complete with wrapper last year and as you can see a word believed to be 'EXPORTATION' has been scratched out. This is an ace for Export as the design incorporates palm leaves in the garter design to the right of the spade sign. The use of 'palm leaves' as opposed to ordinary leaves differentiates aces printed at this time between the domestic ace where a duty e.g six pence, would be seen and no duty mark, common to aces for Exportation. The mystery here is that stamps printed from plates between the years 1769 - 1801 are missing from the Stamp Office records and we have no evidence to confirm whether Gibson & Gisborne ever registered such a design. There are no known examples of Exportation aces for this maker.
The Gibson & Gisborne cards were discovered together with the playing card wrapper shown. It is crudely printed and has no printed text or duty markings of any kind. It may be that there is some text beneath the broad ink lines which can be seen along both sides of the wrapper but nothing is visible to the eye. Where these card to be sold and used domestically without payment of duty, who knows? As both the cards and wrapper are both in exceptionally good and clean condition it is unlikely that they were used much at all....was the owner just too afraid to use them and afraid of being caught?
John Llewellyn took over from the McEvoy playing card maker in c. 1778 and had a relatively short existence in the business to 1785. The Ace shown here was also discovered last year and came from the same source as that Gibson & Gisborne deck although the exact provenance is unknown. Once again we have a garter ace with the design associated with an ace for Exportation but the word 'Exportation' has been scratched out. Again there are no records available to confirm whether Llewellyn ever registered an ace for Exportation at the Stamp Office and no examples of cards for Export are known for this maker.
Wrapper found with cards above. No text or duty markings.
As George III's third son, William IV did not expect to accede to the throne. He only became heir to his eldest brother, George IV, at the age of 61, when George III's second son, the Duke of York died in 1827. William finally came to the throne in 1830 at the age of 64. there was considerable concern that he would not be fit for the task. However, he acquitted himself well, showing enough sense to accept advice from his ministers during a period of great political and constitutional reform.
William entered the navy as a midshipman at the age of 13 and rose through the ranks to take command of his own ship ion 1786. In 1790 William retired from active service and settled down at Bushey Park, where he lived in bliss with his mistress, the actress Dorothea Jordan, who bore him 10 illegitimate children. In 1811 financial difficulties drove him to leave her and begin a search for a wife. He finally married Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen in 1818. William acceded to the throne on 26 June 1830 and was crowned at Westminster Abbey 8 September 1831.
Is this the earliest commemorative back design produced by an English card maker? This ornate design incorporates the initials 'W' and 'A' for William and Adelaide and was issued to celebrate the coronation in 1831. Articles published at the time confirm the production.
"Coronation cards - among other Coronation productions , Messrs Reynolds whose former performances in the way of beautiful card making we have noticed with praise , have sent out cards, (though they are playing cards) very fancifully and tastefully executed in gold and coloured devices by Messrs Hewlett and Brimmer. The backs are like fine porcelain with the letters W., A , surrounded with foliage and crowns, flags and other ornaments , printed in gold upon them. They are curiosities if too handsome for shuffling, cutting and dealing".
In 1831, at Somerset House, London as w as required for duty purposes, Thomas De la Rue registered his first ace of spades there. This was the first public appearance of of a De La Rue playing card. Early the following year "His present most Excellent Majesty King William IV' granted him a Royal Letters Patent for 'certain improvements in making or manufacturing and ornamenting playing cards' in the second year of his reign.
Up until this time playing cards had either been stencilled by hand in water colours or printed in one colour and then hand tinted. The process was inevitably expensive, laborious and inaccurate. The first of a long line of De La Rue patents, Thomas's playing card 'Improvements' ran to 12 pages. The most significant improvements included the introduction of steel printing blocks with lead plates bearing images of the court cards, the use of superior quick drying oil inks, a new method of glazing the cards by passing them between copper sheets through powerful rollers instead of the antique method of glazing by friction with a flint, and the use of enamelled paper. Thomas became known not only as 'the father of the English playing card' but was claimed by some to be largely responsible for modern English colour printing.
Thomas's first set of playing card designs printed in 1832 were not too dissimilar to existing styles however he continued to develop improvements and in the years between 1832 and 1835 he set about altering the actual designs of playing card faces, which had remained unchanged for generations. Whilst the changes were not too drastic Thomas tried to put a little life into his kings, queens and knaves. By tradition these had always had blank, wooden faces. Thomas added expression into the faces and modernised the court-dress slightly and gave his queens feet. ( The first and only time the DLR Queens had feet)
The most popular card game at this time was 'Whist' and the biggest celebrity on the subject was Mrs Battle who was launched into society by Charles Lamb who produced 'Mrs Battles's opinions on Whist'. Thomas was keen to capture this large market of whist players and presented his new playing card designs for comment. For Mrs Battle Whist was her business, her duty and the thing she came into the world to do. Up and down the country all that whist players asked for was a 'clean fire, a clean hearth and the rigour of the game'. They just wanted to get on with the game and not be diverted by unnecessary ornamentation to the cards. Mrs Battle was heard to comment ' Why two colours even, when the mark of the suit would distinguish without it ?'.
Charles Lamb goes to Thomas's defence 'But the eye, my dear madam, is agreeably refreshed with variety. Man is not a creature of pure reason - he must have his senses delightfully appealed to'. He notes the colours and antics of the court cards and commented 'All these might be dispensed with and with their naked names upon the drab paste board the game might go on very well, picture less, but the the beauty of cards would be extinguished for ever'.
After much discussion and after incurring considerable cost Thomas bowed to the pressure of Mrs Battle and he refined his court designs. The faces of his new playing cards obediently reverted to the desired conventions. Once more they became expressionless and the queens lost their feet again.
Thomas appeared to have capitulated. So intent were the players on their game, however, that before they had realised it, Mr Dde la Rue had wrought some changes in their paste boards after all. Quick to take the point that there was no future in altering the fronts of cards, he changed his tack. He revolutionised the backs instead. In so doing he proved that he could do a smart about turn; at one moment he was facing an expensive mistake, at the next a trade success, a manoeuvre that he performed so smoothly that the public was hardly conscious that he had suffered a fall in the process. His preoccupation with designs for playing card backs was not entirely aesthetic. Until he arrived on the scene the backs, being plain, revealed flaws all too easily. This was a source of constant annoyance to the players. A recognisable bumps on a knave of diamonds, for instance, could spoil the sport for a beady eyed Mrs Battle. Thomas's all over patterns camouflaged any such potential give-aways. Not that there were many flaws in his cards; the new smoothed surfaced enamelled paper ensured there were no 'hills and valleys'.
The search for the best artists in London to design card backs had begun and it was not long before he discovered the famous Owen Jones.
(extracts taken from 'The House that Thomas Built' published by Lorna Houseman for De La Rue in 1968.)
This advertising deck is arguably one of the last to be produced with the name of Reynolds on the ace of spades. The Swan Brewery in Fulham was owned by Stansfeld & Co Ltd which acquired the site and business from Oliver Stocken who founded the brewery in 1769. This advertising deck was issued c. 1886 - 1890 based on the appearance of the name of Reynolds & Co which appears on the ace of spades. The name of Reynolds disappears from c. 1900. The brewery produced several types of ales which are described on the ir sales leaflet from 1882. What amuses me most is the description of the ale and its targeted audience for example.. 'X' - "ale a shade weaker than the last, adapted to houses where the consumption is very great, or where the domestics have uncontrolled admission to the tap" also 'Table Beer' - a" a cheap and agreeable beverage - admirable for schools and institutions". All I had when I went to school was a third of a pint of Milk :(
from 1809
from 1855
from 1886
An artist with published prints
A book illustrator
32 illustrations depicting the Kings & Queens of England
Comic History
Comic History
The Crowquill cards
Born in London in 1804 Alfred Forrester discovered an aptitude for literary and artistic pursuits from an early age. He was soon associated with writing for periodical publications such as New Monthly, Bentley and the very well known Punch magazine. He often wrote short tales, songs, children's stories and occasional burlesques. Forrester was also a talented artist, worked on etchings and could draw using pen and ink. He is best known for his book illustrations which include: Dean & Sons series , Little Plays for Little People, The Comic History of the Kings & Queens of England. c.1850 Forrester was commissioned by Reynolds & Sons makers of playing cards to produce drawings for a set of playing cards. Following the popular trend for 'transformation' playing cards the set published by Reynolds had comic style courts and caricature faces illustrated within each of the 'pips' on the cards. These cards are relatively scarce and appear to have been a one off production, but what a legacy from one of those talented victorian artists.
Alfred Henry Forrester died 26 May 1872 and was buried at West Norwood cemetery , near London.
Alfred Forrester published most of his work under the pseudonym of Alfred Crowquill
Published by Reynolds & Sons 1850-1860 . This is a full set of 52 cards with ink drawings of comic faces within all the pips. The courts are also a departure from the standard and once again are comic style representations. The style of drawings is typical of Crowquill's work as can be seen across his other commissions for book and comic illustrations. There is no better way to own 232 diffecrent comic drawings by Alfred Crowquill.
It is always exciting to find some nice early wood block printed cards as they are relatively scarce and when you consider that they are made from just paper and card and were made over 200 years ago its amazing to think that they have survived this long. To most card collectors and those that collect packs of cards as opposed to single cards it is particularly good if you can find a complete pack that is 52 cards for a standard deck and 32 cards for a Piquet or Bezique set.
I spotted these cards for sale on an auction site. They were a partial set with 11 courts and a number of pip cards but without an Ace of Spades. Sometimes an auction house will incorrectly describe an early set of cards as being without the Ace of Spades as they are not familiar with the early designs and fail to identify the ace which is often present. In this case the ace was not present so it was not possible to readily identify the maker. The ace of Spades is also an easy way to identify the age of the cards by looking at the tax duties stamped on the ace.
So why would I be interested in buying a partial set without the ace of spades. Well my first thoughts were that these cards had quite a distinctive style, typical of cards printed c. 1795 -1810. One particular feature was the Queen of Hearts which features the Queen holding a Tulip which is not common and only known to have been used by a few early makers including Blanchard, French, Wheeler, Gibson
I had not seen this style of design before and the closest design I could find was from a set of cards supposedly by HUNT which I already own. The QH on the left is by Hunt but as you can see she holds the more conventional style of flower and not a Tulip.
The KD above on the left is from a deck by HUNT. Whilst close in design there are still subtle differences in the design.
The Ace of Spades from an early deck by Hunt c.1800
This QH is from a set of playing cards that has an ace by H FRENCH and again although very similar in design has subtle differences. The Queen is holding a Tulip.
The above image has been kindly provided by Ken Lodge and is a copy of cards in his collection including what he believes to be a fake or copy of a Blanchard Ace of Spades.
Without the benefit of an ace of spades it is difficult to definitively identify the maker of a set of cards. That said reference works produced by Ken Lodge and Paul Bostock on 'Wood block and Stencil' and the 'English Standard Pattern' by Ken Lodge are the best guides you can find today to help you identify early English Playing Cards and are essential for the serious collector.
So What have I bought?... To conclude, the part set of cards that I bought at auction visually, are most like those that can be seen in the picture above with the (fake) Blanchard ace of spades (from the collection of Ken Lodge). Whilst the Blanchard Ace of Spades is believed to be a fake or copy are the rest of the cards also copies or has the ace just been added to another printers set of cards. Are they even English as cards from Belgium are known to have found their way to our shores. Until we can find a similar deck with an authenticate ace of spades then we can only assume that they are indeed a copy of fake. But, they are still over 200 years old, relatively rare and fake or no fake they provoke debate, so what is there not to like...