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.


	It was Saturday, March 24, 2001 and Miriam and I were looking at the stalls at the general collectors fair at the Jaarbeurs in Utrecht. Even on a stall with lots of different small items this box with its colorful portrait catches your eye immediately. Originally it held 10 Wascana "pareltjes" (small pearls) by the N.V. La Bolsa from Kampen (Netherlands), but fortunately it was laying flat on the table and we could see that the bottom of the box was missing. Instead of 10 small cigars it showed a deck of cards.

Although we were still working on our playing card knowledge, we did recognize the deck from pictures in a .pdf file with Dutch private printers. At home we checked the given info there and it was really disappointing to find that there was in fact none. No title, no maker or publisher and the dating was a rather arbitrary "around 1956". Further info was that it was printed on card in offset and that the cards measure 62 x 89 mm. The only thing we noticed was that the deck had also been published with the same back design in red. There was no picture or mentioning of a box or wrapper.
As reason for classifying it as Dutch was given that the deck had only been found in the Netherlands.

However, the KVB-combination of indices is a bit odd. Although in playing a game players here often use either Koning or Heer as indication, the usually accepted Dutch indices are H, V, B for Heer, Vrouw and Boer (gentleman, woman and farmer). Exported decks from Belgium (Cartamundi) for the Dutch market use these indices too, but exported decks from German makers often use their K,D,B (König, Dame, Bube), which the Dutch players can read as Koning, Dame, Boer (king, lady, farmer). Hence the oddness here.

The agreeable fantasy pattern was done in line drawings and 4 colors. The printing is of very good quality, the cutting leaves room for improvement. See the centering of some cards and the mishap of the ace of hearts. Still, I think that the end result is quite acceptable.

So.... enjoy this mystery deck!