Kaffehaus Tarock ( Piatnik)

Kaffehaus Tarock ( Piatnik)- 54c.

 In my opinion, this deck is probably the most beautiful of all the tarock decks, with it's colourful illustrations. ( compare http://anthonylesq.blogspot.com/2012/02/tarock-ass.html)
The deck is slightly larger than normal tarock decks.Otherwise, it is identical to the standard versions.

I shall leave the pictures to tell the rest of the story.

William tell / Viennese large crown pattern ( Piatnik)

William tell / Viennese large crown pattern ( Piatnik) - 36c.

The following deck is a very curious deck. It is comprised of 2 patterns of playing cards, the Viennese large crown, and the William tell pattern, one at each end of the card . I like to call such decks "Janus"decks.

 The motivation for producing such chimeras , is that in some countries, like Austria, card-players use two diffrent types of playing cards, which are completely diffrent from one another. Therefore , as a comprmise, makers sometimes print such decks, with one type of card at one end, and the other at the other end. Therefore, the dispute is settled.
 Also note that this deck has 6s. Normaly, Austrian large crown decks do not have 6s.

Here are the number cards of the deck. Note the decoration on the german suited side, which is     copied faithfuly!

Here is the same deck, with the french suited side facing upwards

see also;

http://anthonylesq.blogspot.sg/2011/10/magyar-kartya.html

and

http://anthonylesq.blogspot.sg/2011/11/preference-vienna-large-crown-pattern.html

Austrian large crown pattern ( piatnik)

Austrian large crown pattern ( piatnik) , 52c. + 3 jokers

This deck is of the austrian large crown pattern, but posses some ususual features;
I- the deck has 55 cards. Normaly, the deck only has 32 or sometimes as little as 24
II the deck has indexes.
compare: http://anthonylesq.blogspot.com/2011/11/preference-vienna-large-crown-pattern.html

"Doppelkopf" ( piatnik )

"Doppelkopf" , saxon pattern , Piatnik , 24c.
[ The ace of acorns on the deck bears the legend " Sehr feine schwerdter deutsche"- "extra fine sword-german ", a refrence to the swords found on the single faced version's ace of acorns]
The following deck is the 24-card version of a saxon pattern ( which normaly comes in 32 card decks), for playing the game of doppelkopf (but the game in question actualy needs 2 such decks of cards shuffled together- go figure)
For another version of the deck, see : http://anthonylesq.blogspot.com/2011/10/saxony-pattern-cards-single-vs-double.html
Note the ace of hearts . In the middle of the card, there is a blank circle. I suspect this was where the tax stamp was supposed to go.

miniature "tell pattern" piatnik

miniature "tell pattern", by piatnik. 32 cards.
a pleasing miniature of the "william tell"/ four seasons pattern.
these cards are harldly used in Germany at all, instead being used in central europe.
Note the pip cards. they have little scenes from the wtell legend, like the death of Tell's archenemy, gessleer, on the 7 of hearts.
for a Hungarian version of this pattern, see: http://anthonylesq.blogspot.com/2011/10/magyar-kartya.html

Russian playing cards by piatnik

Russian playing cards by piatnik.
52 cards+ 3 jokers.
note the ace of diamonds. it bears an image of a pelican , feeding it's chicks on it's blood.
this act of maternal sacrifice is appopriate when you con sider that in the good old days, a tax was levied on theese cards, for the benifit of the imperial orphanage- sweet....

compare this deck with one produced about 50 years earlier.
http://anthonylesq.blogspot.com/2011/10/russian-playing-cards.html

"feine quitili karten"

"neccesity is the mother of invention"

the picture you see above you are eight cards from a deck of quittili or quitili or  cards.

this deck is used by central european Jews to avoid religious restrictions regarding the "devil's picture-book"

the deck is of 24 cards, comprising of a dozen values, from 1- 12, indicated by the appopriate roman number.

the 2s and 11s are enclosed in a frame.

the only maker , to my knowledge of this deck, is piatnik of austria.

the game played with them, until relatively recently, remained  a mystery, due to the fact that ( apparently) the only users of these cards were members of the tight-knit Hasadic jewish communtities in new york. however, thanks to the marvel of the internet, the rules of this game emerged on pagat.com...

http://www.pagat.com/banking/quitlok.html