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"WORLD" XPO - 4
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"WORLD" XPO - 4
The "world" Xpo consists of favourite jokers from visitors of this site. If you want to participate, send a scan of your favourite joker(s) in .jpg format to jopo@dxpo-playingcards.com
Here's the fav' joker from
Paul Oulton, a collector of jokers from Liverpool, UK. His accompanying note said: "Hi Gang, This is my favourite joker the Liver Bird of Liverpool".
When asked about this bird,
Paul explained: The Liver
Bird, the symbol of Liverpool, is a mythical bird and 'Liver' originally 'Laver'
is a type of seaweed because the orginal bird was a Cormorant a sea bird."
If
you're interested to see more "Liver Birds" you can check
out
Paul's website www.liverbirdology.com
.
Later this month he sent a second fav' joker, a very small one this time, or as
Paul says: "This is another favourite joker of mine and must be the smallest around. It measures just 23mm x 15mm and came with a novelty pack of cards attached to a keyring."Editor's note: Sorry Paul, but there are even smaller ones!
Here are three fav' jokers from
Tom Klein from the Netherlands. Although he argued that he would need more space to show all his favourite jokers, he limited his contribution to these 3 jokers. Tom explains: "these jokers are among my favourites and I don't think they are frequently seen. The first one I swapped with a nice lady from Iceland, the second one was published in Dubai and the last one in Thailand.".
And he ended his short accompaning note with: "Joker
hunters who like to correspondence with me chose tb.klein@upcmail.nl
."
So if you're interested
Another contribution from the Netherlands: Marti Snellenberg send an email with 2 pics attached. He wrote....
I
get really jealous if I see some of the cards from other collectors. I am
collecting for almost 35 years and had a difficult time to choose between
2700 cards. I chose the following cards: the first because of its simplicity and
the second because that’s the picture I see when I hear the word joker.
.
Greetings
to all collectors,
Marti
A contribution by José Luiz Pagliari from Brazil. It's an antique joker.
.
This is the information that
José Luiz added to the
picture:
The deck's name is "Infantil" and the courts have the
Wüst house design. It is patience-sized and made around 1910 by Albino
Gonçalvez & Co., the company that originated COPAG.
Here's one of the fav' jokers from the collection of Yvon Schmitz from Canada.
.
And there's a
reason.........
"I send you a scan of a joker that I never see anywhere, it
was given to me by my grandfather in the late 1940's, I think 1948-1949. On that
time he had a Delhaize store in Belgium and I think the coffee Cordon Rouge was
made for Delhaize only? This joker means much to me because it's the only thing
I have left from my grandfather".
Yvon
also asked us if we had more information about the joker. We asked our joker
collecting friends for help and Yvette Laurent from Brussels has found out that
the joker was made in Turnhout. She added that the "vîtes-vous" is in
French a hardly ever used way to say "did you see". The whole sentence
says "did you ever see a funnier joker than...".
Should any visitor
have further information about maker or date, please let us know.
Ronald Kruijmel from the Netherlands was encouraged to send in this great old joker.
.
Or as Ronald explains......
I've watched the Xpo many times, thinking which joker I could send in. There are many favorite ones. This year I came across a joker, of which I think it could deserve a place here. During one of the latest collectors meetings Joop encouraged me to send something in for this Xpo. So here it is, the Goliath joker. It's a Belgian joker. There a text on the back saying "Bieren a. meiresonne NV h.r. 189".
Tom van Berkum from the Netherlands is the son of the late Gerrit van Berkum, who had been collecting playing cards since the 1970's. Tom himself has been collecting jokers for a long time now too and we finally managed to get him to send in 3 of his favourite jokers.
.
Tom: "Although I would like to send in a top 100, I have confided me to the max of 3 and that wasn't an easy job!
"1/ Willner The Jolly Joker, England, a fantastic "real" joker. This is how I picture how a joker should look. Finger, doll and an insane look in the eyes.
2/ Reorex (c 1935), also a real joker. Very special is the fact that the card is for the greater part made of aluminum.
3/ J. I. Austen Company, Chicago, USA (1895), "Austen Beauties". This is one of my latest acquisitions and certainly one of my favourite American jokers."
Another contribution from the Netherlands: Rina Tervoort has been collecting jokers for many years now and we often meet her at collectors bourses. She is always interested in information about her jokers, maker, country, era etc. and often has intriguing questions for us. We've often asked her, but now she too has finally sent us her favourite............
The joker came with a short explanation from
Rina: "Finally plucked up courage to show you my favourite. It's a commonly known joker, that can also be found in opposite colouring, but I don't find its features as marked as this one. This joker is my favourite, because it's the prototype of a joker, who's plays tricks and pranks. He clearly splits his sides with laughing about his own jokes."
Hugo Diependaele from Belgium is a collector of playing cards and he found some very attractive jokers in his decks.
And
Hugo gave the following information about these jokers:"I think that the first one is the oldest and I found it in a deck that came in a wrapper, in which it didn't belong, judging by the fantasy design back. I find this one very elegant and don't think it will be of Belgian make. The second one comes from an early deck with with an advertising back for the liquor firm "Dubonnet". This firm has often published special jokers with their decks, but this black and white one is the oldest and much wanted. The last one comes from a deck that dates from before 1940 with an advertising back for "La Dernière Heure", a Belgian newspaper in French. The aces in this deck are special too. It was probably printed by Mesmaekers, as the joker is a sort of "strooiventje".
Editor's note: "strooiventje" or "strooi-joker" are the Flemish and Dutch name for the well known Carta Mundi joker, which was originally used by Mesmaekers, one of the three Belgian printers that founded Carta Mundi.
In December we received scans of 6 jokers, again from Hugo Diependaele. We have limited the maximum per contribution to 3 jokers and have reserved the right to make our choice if more are send in. This time we chose the following three......
And from Hugo we received the following information about these jokers:
"The
first one came with a deck which was published by Grimaud at the end of WW II.
We see a special joker design for this edition, yet pretty hard to find. On the
backs of the deck are the flags of the allied countries.
The second one is from an Italian deck which advertises a special liquor. Often
we see special designed jokers for these liquor advertising decks. This one
comes from an edition from the early 1950's, later a common joker was used for
the same liquor advertising.
The last one is from a very beautiful old Austrian deck, note the spelling - Jolly Jocker".
A contribution from Marché Noecker. He's relatively new to joker collecting, but has found our site and wants to share his fav's with us here.
About
the first one
Marché wrote:
"On my Facebook page I caption this card: 'Ghoulish Ünd Mischievous Imps...
Vermicious Knids wit Devilish Grins'. One of my first actual purchases of a
Joker card and certainly the first that I was obsessed enough to pay an
inconceivable $12.50 to have as my own. I was incredibly thrilled upon it's
arrival, holding it in my hands, giddy...and introduced to the wild world of
collecting joker cards (for real!)."
and about the second one a simple: "....and this one still absolutely
pleases me to look at. Can't explain it so u won't."
And
Marché Noecker ends his
contribution with: "I have much fun with this whole thing and am privy to
keeping it fun and amusing for self and all else. I invite you to check in on my
collection at facebook.com/jokerstealer. A new Joker is posted each and every
day!!!"
From Ronald Kruijmel, a Dutch collector, we received the following joker......
We thought that his choice would need some explaining. And so did Ronald:
"It's
an American joker by Brown & Bigelow, an advertising joker for General
Electric to promote their refrigerator in 1934.
Why is this joker so special for me? I knew of its existence, but never could
get my hands on it. Now I did, but with a handwritten text on it.
The (blue) dragon is appealing for me. There's something with me and dragons. I
was born in the year of the Dragon.
Besides that it's an advertising joker, those are often nice ones to have in
your collection. On the internet I found a picture of this fridge, exactly as
it's pictured on the joker. It's an extraordinary refrigerator. That gives it an
extra dimension.
And then there's the handwritten text. Collectors often don't like that, but in
this case it's different for me. It always raises questions. Why did someone
write this, with what purpose? What does it exactly say? If I try to decipher
it, I think it says: Feb 11 1934. How do Americans abbreviate their
months? 1934 is the year of publication of the joker (according to the joker
museum, may be wrong, but still). But why was that date written on it? Is it
someone's birthday or the day when someone received this joker or a date for a
date? Questions, questions, questions! Also there's something written like Ms
J or F Grant. Is or was this a collector or is it just a note by
someone? Very interesting, but it raises questions. If anyone should have
suggestions, I'm happy to hear them.
Together, all this makes it a very special joker for me."
.
Judy Dawson has already contributed some wonderful antique American jokers to this world xpo (see page 3), but we're glad to put up an other joker, that we received from her. She always adds the available information too and this time Judy wrote:
"I thought you might like this Joker – It is from an ad deck made c1910 by Andrew Dougherty which advertises Cocoa Naptha Soap made by the Los Angeles Soap Company."
Well, we do! So THANKS, Judy.
. .
SHARE your
favourite joker(s) with the rest of the world!