DECK OF THE MONTH

Just like the "Joker of the Month" in the Jokers section we will select a "Deck of the Month" from all the decks that we could add to our collection during that month. It will be what we consider our best find. We've started this section in April 2007 and without any doubt we can say here that over the years there will be antique, vintage and modern decks shown on these pages. Age, design and value of the chosen decks may be very different each time.

I won this deck at an auction in Toulouse, France, on March 26. I was bidding from home and in the actual auction room there was a well determined lady who in the end made me pay a little more than I'd hoped for. I used The Packengers for picking up, packaging and shipping the deck and about a fortnight later it was hand delivered to me on my doorstep. Life can be easy!
And.... I had a nice deck to show here.

I've always had a soft spot for these French costume decks, for the fine printing, hand colored figures and the often hazy backgrounds to complete the image. There are already 5 other costume decks to be found on this website, of which 4 in this section: deck-20-07, deck-21-05, deck-24-02 and deck-16-09. The latter and lock-05-15 from the first "Lockdown Series" were published by Grimaud. The others by O. Gibert, also from Paris.
This deck was attributed to Gibert by Rod Starling on the WOPC website. Although the name Gibert isn't on any of the courts, as in the other decks, Rod had probably based his attribution on the embellishments on the aces. In his deck they indeed look quite similar to those in the other Gibert decks, so a plausible attribution. Rod Starling dated it as c1848. I've scanned the courts here at 150%, so it's easier to compare them with Rod's deck.
When I checked the aces in this deck, I noticed a difference with Rod's deck. On the courts each image is set in a thin lined frame, but in this deck the frame was used on the aces too. And it was printed in the color of the suit. This feature wasn't used in any of the other Gibert decks. And, not to my surprise any more, it was used on all the pip cards as well, as shown at the bottom of this page.

So it's obviously a variation and whenever a variation is found immediately the question is raised: older or younger? I tend toward the latter, but I contacted Pascal Pette, who is an expert on antique and vintage French decks, hoping that he could provide information or his opinion. But a second question arose when I took a closer look at the aces of hearts of Rod's deck and mine: could mine be a rogue edition? It was the ace that was the easiest to compare, because the opened book at the bottom forms a distinguishing feature.

	< mine	WOPC>
	At the bottom several differences become clear: the positioning of the book, the floral arrangements, the cruder printing. And in the oval outline around the pip on the left two small diamond shapes have been added, while the outline on the right seems to have been printed in black.
So how do these compare with the aces in known Gibert decks?
	deck 21-05
deck 20-07			deck 24-02
Apparently for each deck the basic design was newly recreated, with small differences as consequence. So no reason to consider my deck as a rogue edition and the Gibert connection remains plausible. Unfortunately Pascal Pette hasn't answered yet. When he does I'll add his findings here.

		ENJOY THESE COURTS.

	finished blank backs
	finished blank backs