Peter Endebrock's Playing-card Pages        home   -   cards from Hannover   -   taxes   -   collection   -   societies   -   my publications

  home   >   collection   >   Biermans' Cartes Extra-Fines

This pack was printed around 1900 by Leonard Biermans, Turnhout, as 'Cartes à Jouer Extra-Fines', and the wrapper shows a giraffe and the initials of the maker:

It is a later edition of a well-known pack by this maker, 'Carte de Luxe No. 1' designed in 1877, which had a different printing technique (lithography). While there are plain aces in the original edition, here they show views from Paris:

Clubs:	PONT NEUF ET STATUE HENRI IV A PARIS / PORTE St MARTIN A PARIS
Spades:	L' ÉGLISE DES INVALIDES À PARIS / CANONS DES INVALIDES À PARIS
Hearts:	PLACE DE LA CONCORDE À PARIS / THÉATRE LYRIQUE À PARIS
Diamonds:	LA BOURSE A PARIS / JARDIN DES TUILERIES À PARIS

A strange thing is that aces with identical views are known from packs made by Brepols, but I do not know them from other packs made by Biermans.

Note that there are modified suit signs for the Clubs and Spades suits.

For comparison reasons I am showing the Clubs court cards from the original edition in the bottom row.