The Württemberg pattern is somewhat of a hodge-podge. The court cards probably evolved from the courts of a Tarock ( german version of tarot) deck , hence the mounted obers in the deck ( tarot/tarock decks, needless to say, have knights).
The deck comes in two forms, the first, and less common form, is a normal 32- card deck , for playing skat, schafkopf ( sheepshead), &c. The second, and more common form, ( shown here) is comprised of two 24-card decks united together, with the following ranks in each suit
Ace, King, Ober, Under , 10, 7
The curious ranking is because this deck is used to play the game of "binokel", in which the 10 and 7 hold special powers. This game, which my American readers may know as "pinochle" used to be played with a pair of 32 card decks, till the players threw out the non-scoring ranks of eight and nine.
Note the following features:
1- The obers have their name written out in full on them
2-The under of bells carries a knapsack
3- The aces are decorated with pictures of food and drink.
Hello there,I recently purchased old set of playing cards just like these. Except ASS logo is different on the acorns, bells and leaves. It is black ASS above black heart inside an upturned triangle within circle. The A of hearts has same logo in red and bigger. Pictures are same as these. Any idea what era they are from? Julie, Australia
ReplyDeleteFrom your description, I cannot really tell. However, If there are any stamps of any sort on the cards, particularly on the ace of hearts ( 3rd image, 5th from left) they can be used to date the cards. See http://www.endebrock.de/stamps/st-d.html and http://www.endebrock.de/stamps/st-d1.html . If you can send me some images, it would be even better.
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