2

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Here is the deck that triggered this xpo. It was recently acquired at a Dutch collectors fair. It is obvious that the deck was made by Ferdinand Piatnik & Sons from Vienna, Austria, but we haven't been able to find it in any of our reference books on playing cards. The tax stamp on the Ace of Hearts was used between 1900 and 1920 and the value of 30 (heller) is consistent with the deck, which holds 32 cards and these are not lacquered nor washable. The cards measure 43 by 61 mm, have square corners and were stencil-coloured.

Should a visitor know anything more about this deck, please contact us and we'll update the info here.

           

          

Again the children are dressed up on the Kings, but here their fake beards and mustaches don't look that fake. Because of the use of only 5 colours (red, blue, green, brown and yellow) and the used technique of stencil colouring, it is difficult to accentuate the fakeness of the beards or mustaches.

          

But in general the idea is the same as that of the Dondorf deck (1): kings are kings, but, although dressed up, the queens and jacks remain real girls and boys. Two of the girls play with their dog, one holds an object, that looks like a pawn from a board game and one holds a flower. The Jacks all have a military look and attribute. The Ace of Hearts has the Piatnik logo, the other aces are embellished with the same design of a wreath of flowers, each with slightly different application of the colours.

          

         

         

         

         

 

INTRO   or  DECK 3