December 23

Well, the first lockdown week has passed. I went to some essential shops, but spent most of the time at home. Last year I skipped Christmas all together, no fun with Miriam gone, but this week I have put up some Christmas decorations and even took in a small Christmas tree from the garden, the great, great, great grandson of the large one that once functioned as such, but has been in our garden for decades now.
So deck nr 8 in this series now. It’s a Dutch deck, printed in lithography by the Speelkaartenfabriek Nederland from Amsterdam and published as “Liberty” here between 1915 and 1924. It’s known among collectors here as “New Liberty”, because the headwear of the jacks was changed to bonnets instead of the more crown-like headwear in the first edition of 1911, also published as “Liberty”. A few other changes were replacing the swords on the JS and JH by halberds and leaving out some fine details in their clothing.
The courts show some Art Deco influences and they are accompanied by a set of aces, showing castles and palaces of the Dutch royal family. The joker of the New Liberty deck is special, because it’s the only monkey joker with the name of the manufacturer vertically next to the figure. A rare one to find, because the deck is equally rare to find. Enjoy!