A fellow-collector of playing cards, Prof. Dr. Walter Haas from Switzerland, was kind enough to provide us with further information about this deck. We had asked him, because it was obvious -see the Jack of Clubs- that the deck was made by J. Muller & Cie. from Schaffhouse (now Schaffhausen), Switzerland. The eldest mentioning of Patience No. 17 was in one of the sample books of Johannes Müller II from ca. 1895. This is the here shown version, printed in chromolithography. The deck was later reprinted in colour-lithography and it is last mentioned in a pricelist of 1922. Click HERE to see the reprint.

The children in this deck are real children. Although the Kings all wear crowns and hold royal insignia, their faces are childish. Here no fake beards or mustaches were added. The Queens and Jacks show ordinary children. The girls are pictured reading a picture book, holding a bird or binding up flowers. Two of the Jacks carry arms. Another is depicted as a sheppard boy, playing his flute and the last one is just playing with his horse-on-a-stick.