complete deck playing cards harlequin (1 Ergebnisse)

52 playing cards (each card c. 88 x 62 mm), double ended courts of H3 design, type 2.1 Ace of Spades, rounded corners, no indices, gold harlequin design to versos; cards a little soiled and rubbed, but a well-preserved set.A lovely and well-preserved complete deck of playing cards by Hunt's Playing Card Manufacturing Company, with a sumptuous design featuring a double-ended harlequin on a gold background. Hunt's Playing Card Manufacturing Co. Ltd was established in 1866 as Joseph Hunt & Sons, set up by a descendant of Hunt as a revival of the old family firm and in competition with Bancks Brothers, who felt they owned the title to the Hunt firm. Though the new Hunts started out using more up-to-date printing methods than Bancks, they failed to adapt and make the design changes that the larger makers did, such as the introduction of indices. Their first courts were double-ended and used earlier Hunt/Bancks courts as the basis for the design; the present set is the third set of courts that the firm produced, in the smaller format and with the rounded corners introduced towards the end of the 1870s. After a fire at their factory in 1874 which destroyed much of the Hunt stock, the firm relocated and changed its name to Hunt's Playing Card Manufactory. The firm ceased trading in 1881 and was finally dissolved in 1887, with the last of the Hunt playing cards produced in Bristol by C.T. Jefferies. The design of the Ace of Spades, with the name of 'Hunt's Playing Card Manufacturing Company Limited', dates to 18751882.