Posted 14 years ago
anarabbit
(1 item)
As far as I can find from my searches on the internet, this deck is around 100 or more years old. I think it may be from Austria, though I am not sure, it was a popular style deck in a few countries in that area such as Hungary and Germany. From what I can tell..I think these are Austrian. There is a logo with a horse that says at the top: Schutzmarke and then underneath that it says: Ferd Piatnik & Sohne Wein 6434. There is no tax stamp..does anyone know what a tax stamp is? I do know that a tax stamp can help to date the deck. Also, the deck has some cards that are rather faded and dirty with what I imagine to be 100 year old grime. I think I will clean them as it doesn't appear to take the ink away from the surface when I scrape it. Many other cards in the deck are in much better shape with no dirt. All of the cards have a yellow-ish tone to them, which I believe is from age. Does anyone have any more information on this deck?
Well here are some on Ruby lane
http://www.rubylane.com/item/404269-T00001517/Dougherty-Hungarian-No-32-Playing
The horse is indeed the logo of the Piatnik company, which had its main location in Vienna (Wien). The pattern of the deck is called Hungarian, although many collectors will refer to it as "Wilhelm Tell" or "Four Seasons". If you want to know more about this pattern: http://www.dxpo-playingcards.com/xpo/tell/pages/tell-01.htm The fact that there is no tax stamp on the deck could mean that it's not as old as it looks. Often a mistake is made in dating a deck, when it has been heavily used. Then it may look antique, but is maybe vintage. But the typography used in your deck suggests a pre-1940 deck, which should have had a tax stamp if it was published in Austria or Germany. The absence of a tax stamp on one of the cards could mean that it was exported, e.g. the US where the tax stamp was an actual stamp and placed on the lid of the box. No box, no proof of a stamp to roughly date the deck. If you want to know more about tax stamps from all over the world, visit Peter Endebrock's site: http://www.endebrock.de/stamps.html
Best regards,
Joop
thank you for the responses, and especially for your informative response joop muller. I very much appreciate it! I hope you get my thank you as I am responding 2 months after you posted. thanks again! ana