Posted 4 years ago
jokercolle…
(19 items)
I'm a life long joker collector who is now trying to better understand the mythology or folklore behind some jokers designed in the late 1800s or early 1900s. Can anyone help.
The big mystery for me is the first card where an apparently good little mythical creature is capturing an evil little creature in a box or trunk. It has a caption of “I’ve got him”. They might be imps or elves or spirits or leprechauns (weren’t the Irish immigrating in great numbers at that time?). It was first published in 1895 by the Standard Playing Card Company based in St Louis and Chicago. Below it are three jokers with the same image, the other two were published by the same company after it was bought by the US Playing Card Co but while it was run as an independent company. Can anyone relate this to folk lore, myths, or stories that would be known in the late 1800s?
The third joker card was first published in 1885 by National Card Company of Indianapolis and NY and it shows a bunny rabbit being hatched from an egg. Behind him, more small mystical creatures with a tool for hitting sort of like a pickaxe. It has an acorn on it. It h is either to help the bunny break out of the egg or to bonk the bunny on his head. It appears, using current thinking, to be Easter-related. Anyone know anything about them?
The fourth joker with the three little mystical creatures is not really a mystery. They are the Brownies as depicted by Palmer Cox in the late 1800s. They were popular in cartoon strips, books, and video games. OK, I'm kidding about the video games but they were so popular that the name was used for a Kodak Brownie Camera and the youngest girl scout levels. Maybe there was a brand of mixes for chocolate brownies using that name. I wonder how much the National Playing Card Company (Indianapolis and NY) would have paid for the right the put these brownies on their jokers.
Can anyone add any more info about what these images might have referred to?
I'm am in no way a card expert. But from what I've read I think that the, " I've got him" may originate from the game euchre?
"games, such as a 25-card variant of Euchre which uses the Joker as the highest trump, make it one of the most important in the game"
That's really interesting as a point. I believe that the modern joker evolved from the game of euchre as the extra card needed for the "Best Bower". Since I don't play euchre, I'm not sure how this fits together but I'll go ask on some card forums to see if "I've got him" might fit into that somehow. Thanks. Here's my explanation as to why jokers exist in modern decks. https://www.amusedbyjokersami.com/2017/12/why-are-there-jokers-in-decks-of.html